Barriers to initiating and maintaining participation in parkrun (BMC Health)

Interventions that increase population physical activity are required to promote health and wellbeing. parkrun delivers community-based, 5k 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 and don’t initiate or maintain participation ii) understand the barriers to participating in parkrun amongst these people.

With females significantly more likely than males to report the psychological barrier of feeling too unfit to participate in parkrun, the resources created for this project aim to break down the barriers identified in this research and reflect the primary motivations that drive parkrun participation amongst young females.