IMIS - Marine Research Groups

To accelerate the research about the effects of the coast on health, a dataset was compiled based on survey data from a sample (N = 1939) of the adult Flemish population about their visits to the Belgian coast. The survey queried the respondents’ number of day visits and/or longer stays per season in the previous year and the following characteristics of their visits: how often they performed specific activities, which of the 14 municipal seaside resorts they visited, who they were with, what they mentally and physically experienced, and what reasons they had for not visiting the coast more often. The respondents’ geo-demographic (including residential proximity to the coast), socio-economic, and health profile was also collected. We anticipate that investigations on the data will increase our understanding about the social structuring of coastal visits and give context to the effects of the coast on human health.