Research Note: Residential Distance and Recreational Visits to Coastal and Inland Blue Spaces in Eighteen Countries

Health researchers have historically grouped people by how far they live from blue spaces (coasts, lakes, and rivers) in many different ways. This has made is difficult to compare results across different studies.

Using survey data from eighteen countries, researchers modeled how the distance people live from blue spaces relates to whether they visit those places for recreation at least once a week. They found that the probability of visiting drops off sharply as distance increases for all three types of water. Based on those patterns, they developed distance categories that could be useful in future health research. The categories work best when the assumed link between living near water and better health is that people are visiting blue spaces for recreation.

Abstract

Varied categorisations of residential distance to bluespace in population health studies make comparisons difficult. Using survey data from eighteen countries, we modelled relationships between residential distance to blue spaces (coasts, lakes, and rivers), and self-reported recreational visits to these environments at least weekly, with penalised regression splines. We observed exponential declines in visit probability with increasing distance to all three environments and demonstrated the utility of derived categorisations. These categories may be broadly applicable in future research where the assumed underlying mechanism between residential distance to a blue space and a health outcome is direct recreational contact.