Barriers to initiating and maintaining participation in parkrun

L J Reece,M Shields,G Turner,K Owen,C Wellington,C Jackson,M Graney

doi:10.1186/s12889-022-12546-w

Abstract

Interventions that increase population physical activity are required to promote health and wellbeing. parkrun delivers community-based, 5 km events worldwide yet 43% who register never participate in a parkrun event. This research had two objectives; i) explore the demographics of people who register for parkrun in United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and don’t initiate or maintain participation ii) understand the barriers to participating in parkrun amongst these people. Mandatory data at parkrun registration provided demographic characteristics of parkrun registrants. A bespoke online survey distributed across the three countries captured the reasons for not participating or only participating once. Of 680,255 parkrun registrants between 2017 and 19, 293,542 (43%) did not participate in any parkrun events and 147,148 (22%) only participated in one parkrun event. Females, 16–34 years and physically inactive were more likely to not participate or not return to parkrun. Inconvenient start time was the most frequently reported barrier to participating, with females more likely than males to report the psychological barrier of feeling too unfit to participate. Co-creating strategies with and for people living with a chronic disease, women, young adults, and physically inactive people, could increase physical activity participation within parkrun.

Highlights

The benefits of being physically active on health and wellbeing have been well researched and documented over the last five decades [1, 2]
Compared to the total proportion of inactive people who registered for parkrun (10.6%), a higher proportion of those who registered but did not participate were inactive compared to those who did one or more 30 min bout of exercise per week when they registered for parkrun (12.8%)
The survey sample consisted of 3094 registrants who had not participated in a parkrun event and 2673 who had participated in one parkrun event, but not returned

Summary

Introduction

The benefits of being physically active on health and wellbeing have been well researched and documented over the last five decades [1, 2]. To achieve health and wellbeing benefits, the World Health Organization (WHO) provide evidence-based public health recommendations for children, adolescents, adults and older adults on the recommended frequency, intensity and duration of physical activity [3]. Global guidelines like these are an essential component of a comprehensive governance and policy framework for public health action and provide a clear consistent global measurement framework of progress [3]. People from disadvantaged areas (low socio-economic status) are more likely to be physically inactive and are at an elevated risk of developing chronic diseases [5], exacerbating health inequalities. Nurturing environments that facilitate physical activity, are required if population health outcomes are to be optimised

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion