File(s) under permanent embargo
Exploring the health-promoting potential of the 'parkrun' phenomenon: What factors are associated with higher levels of participation?
Design: Cross-sectional.
Setting: Tasmania, Australia; June 2016.
Participants: Three hundred seventy two adult parkrun participants.
Measures: Online survey measuring sociodemographic, health, individual, social and environmental factors, parkrun participation, and PA.
Analysis: Descriptive statistics, zero-truncated Poisson regression models.
Results: Respondents (n = 371) were more commonly women (58%), aged 35 to 53 years (54%), and occasional or nonwalkers/runners (53%) at registration. A total of 44% had overweight/obesity. Half had non-adult children, most spoke English at home, and 7% reported PA-limiting illness/injury/disability. Average run/walk time was 30.2 ± 7.4 minutes. Compared to regular walkers/runners at registration, nonwalkers/runners were less commonly partnered, more commonly had overweight/obesity, less physically active, and had poorer self-rated health. Multivariate analyses revealed relative parkrun participation was inversely associated with education level and positively associated with interstate parkrun participation, perceived social benefits, self-efficacy for parkrun, and intentions to participate.
Conclusion: parkrun attracts nonwalkers/runners and population groups hard to engage in physical activity. Individual- and social-level factors were associated with higher relative parkrun participation. parkrun's scalability, accessibility, and wide appeal confers a research imperative to investigate its potential for public health gain.
History
Publication title
American Journal of Health PromotionVolume
33Pagination
13-23ISSN
0890-1171Department/School
Menzies Institute for Medical ResearchPublisher
Amer J Health Promotion IncPlace of publication
1660 Cass Lake Rd, Ste 104, Keego Harbor, USA, Mi, 48320Rights statement
Copyright The Author(s) 2018Repository Status
- Restricted