How daily time use affects health and well-being
Time Use Data for Health and Well-Being
This project combines time‑diary data from many countries to learn how daily activities relate to health and well‑being for teens and adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Univ of Maryland, College Park NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (College Park, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11345289 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
This project collects and harmonizes time‑diary data from surveys in 19 countries, including the American Time Use Survey and historical U.S. time‑use studies. The team standardizes variable names and coding so researchers can compare how people across ages, places, and years spend time on sleep, work, caregiving, and leisure. IPUMS Time Use makes these cleaned datasets freely available online so researchers can study links between daily activities and physical and mental health. The current funding will add more datasets, preserve microdata, and improve tools for cross‑country and long‑term analyses.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates for research using these data are teens and adults whose daily activities, sleep, caregiving, or work patterns are of interest to researchers.
Not a fit: People requiring immediate medical treatment or those with rare biological conditions unrelated to daily behavior may not see direct benefits from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this resource could help identify everyday habits and social patterns that improve physical and mental health and guide public health recommendations.
How similar studies have performed: IPUMS Time Use and related time‑diary datasets have already supported many published studies on sleep, activity patterns, and behavior changes during the COVID‑19 era, so this is an established resource rather than an untested idea.
Where this research is happening
College Park, United States
- Univ of Maryland, College Park — College Park, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Sayer, Liana C — Univ of Maryland, College Park
- Study coordinator: Sayer, Liana C
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.