A universal mobility-based indicator for regional health level

Human mobility is attracting more attention in public health research; however, the existing paradigms typically lack a universal indicator to reveal the underlying mechanism for both urban and rural cases. Based on the large-scale datasets, including national survey, census, and billions of GPS trajectories, we found that the preference for choosing vehicles for travel can be a powerful and universal indicator for regional health levels. Firstly, we showed reliable evidence on the correlation among travel environment, travel behaviors, and health level. Then, we proposed a new travel inverse preference index that is a reliable measurement of unhealthy lifestyle levels and the age-corrected mortality rates within a particular region. The result further showed that multiple spatial environment factors, such as urbanization level, climates, and local walkability, are also strongly related to the indicator. Additionally, we conducted a comprehensive spatial analysis to develop strategic policies that the government could adopt for potential social improvement.