TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - The influence of neighbourhood equity on parkrunners in a British city JO - Health promotion international A1 - Haake, Steve A1 - Heller, Ben A1 - Schneider, Paul A1 - Smith, Rob A1 - Green, Geoff SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - Physical activity benefits both physical and mental health. Specific events may augment participation in physical activity at a population level. Parkrun is a popular, free, weekly, timed 5 km run or walk in public spaces located in five continents. However, these events may be distributed inequitably, possibly reinforcing inequities in health. As a prelude to a comprehensive analysis of a larger dataset, we explore a hypothesis that participation in parkrun is influenced by the socio-economic characteristics of both parkrunners and their park. Two parkruns, 4.5 km apart, were selected in the city of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Defined by indices of multiple deprivation, Castle parkrun is located in an economically deprived neighbourhood and Hallam parkrun is in a prosperous area of the city. Parkrunners were defined by applying these same indices to the neighbourhood of home registration.

RESULTS: (i) the prosperous Hallam catchment area produced over five times more parkrun participants than Castle; (ii) compared with Castle, Hallam parkrun attracted more participants from both catchment areas; (iii) consequently, Hallam parkrun had seven times more participants than Castle parkrun.

CONCLUSION: establishing parkruns in deprived areas is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for equity of participation in this heath promoting activity.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0957-4824 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daab138 ID - ref1 ER -