Temporal trend of microenvironmental time-activity patterns of the Seoul population from 2004 to 2022 and its potential impact on exposure assessment

Abstract

Abstract Background Time-activity pattern (TAP) is an important parameter for determining personal exposure to environmental pollutants. Changes in TAPs could have significant implications for the alterations in outcomes of exposure assessments. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the Seoul population’s long-term change in TAPs, along with variations by sociodemographic group. Methods In 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019, the Time Use Survey of Statistics Korea collected the TAP information of 4036, 2610, 3337, and 2793 Seoul residents, respectively. In 2022, the TAP information of 4401 Seoul residents was collected for Korean Air Pollutant Exposure (KAPEX) research. The microenvironmental TAP changes in the Seoul population from 2004 to 2022 were assessed based on age, gender, work status, and day type. Results From 2004 to 2022, Seoul people increasingly spent more time in indoor residences (from 14.8 ± 5.1 h to 15.8 ± 4.5 h) and less time in other indoors (from 7.2 ± 4.5 h to 5.9 ± 4.2 h). Their transit time constantly decreased from 2004 (1.4 ± 1.8 h) to 2022 (1.2 ± 1.3 h), whereas the outdoor time fluctuated throughout the years. From 2004 to 2022, the time of the day spent by Seoul people in residential indoor shifted to later in the morning (2004: 8:30 am; 2022: 9:00 am) and earlier in the evening (2004: 9:30 pm; 2022: 7:00 pm); however, the opposite was true for other indoors (2004: from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm; 2022: from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm) and transits (2004: 7:30–9:30 am and 3:00–8:00 pm; 2022: 7:30–9:00 pm and 5:00–9:00). The time of the day spent in outdoors increased from 2004 to 2019, with a distinct peak observed in 2022 (12:00 pm–2:00 pm). The microenvironmental time trends of adolescents and late-adulthoods differed from those of the other age groups, while those of males differed from females. Also, the microenvironmental time trends of the employed differed from those of the unemployed, and those during weekdays differed from those during weekends. Impact statement Microenvironmental TAP should be essentially considered to estimate the actual exposure to pollutants. This study demonstrates the Seoul population’s long-term changes in TAP throughout the 18 years as the significant parameter in exposure assessment. Notably, the microenvironmental TAPs of Seoul people shifted, with variations across different sociodemographic groups. Previous studies in Korea did not consider the TAP shifts in exposure assessment; this study highlights the importance of aligning TAP data with concurrent environmental pollutant data and emphasizes the need for refined data collection in future exposure assessments.