Dempsey, SeraphimSeraphimDempseyDevine, Mel T.Mel T.DevineGillespie, TomTomGillespieet al.2019-08-122019-08-122018 Elsev2018-11-01Health and Place1353-8292http://hdl.handle.net/10197/10979This paper tests whether higher exposure to coastal blue space is associated with lower risk of depression using data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), a nationally representative longitudinal study of people aged fifty and over in Ireland. We contribute to the literature on blue space and health by (i) using scores from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) to measure depression outcomes (ii) using new measures of coastal blue space visibility (iii) studying the association in an older population (iv) using data from Ireland. Our results indicate that exposure to coastal blue space is associated with beneficial mental health outcomes: TILDA respondents with the highest share of sea view visibility have lower depression (CES-D) scores, while distance from coastline is not statistically significant when views and proximity are both included in the model. This finding supports the idea that the primary channel through which coastal blue space operates to reduce depression scores is visual rather than related to physical proximity.Print-ElectronicenThis is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Health & Place. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Health & Place (54, (2018)) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2018.09.002DepressionCES-D scoresCoastal blue spaceBlue space visibilityOlder adultsViewshed analysisJournal Article54Landsc. Urban Plan. 142 201511011710.1016/j.healthplace.2018.09.0022019-08-09https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/