Health and wellbeing

Abstract

The BlueHealth project is an EU-funded Horizon 2020 research project investigating residential exposure to, and recreational contact with, ‘blue’ spaces (e.g. coasts, rivers and lakes) and a range of health and wellbeing outcomes. This project explores the health-promoting potential of ‘blue’ spaces. Part of the project involves collecting data from representative samples of people in 18 countries, across four seasonal waves, about visits they made to blue spaces. In Ireland a total of 1059 people took part. Preliminary analyses reveal that better general health appeared more prevalent in coastal areas, while psychological wellbeing (measured by the World Health Organization’s WHO-5 wellbeing index) also appeared to be better in more coastal areas but not in greener areas. People who visited various types of blue space at least once a week were also more likely to have better health and psychological wellbeing. People who perceived ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’ of blue space within 10-15 minutes’ walk from their home experienced better psychological wellbeing. This research is ongoing and further valuable insights are expected. Find out more at: www.bluehealth2020.eu/ projects/bluehealth-survey.