NDLI: The long-term effect of the coronavirus pandemic on parkrun participation: an interrupted time series analysis

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Rousham, Oscar Quirk, Helen Goyder, Elizabeth Smith, Robert A.
Abstract	Background The growth of parkrun between 2004 and 2019 has been heralded as a success story for public health as a result of its physical activity and wellbeing benefits for participants. However, parkrun was not immune from the COVID-19 pandemic - with events in mainland England cancelled from March 2020 to July 2021. This study explores the lasting impact of the pandemic on parkrun participation to February 2023, and its implications across the socioeconomic spectrum. Methods The study combines aggregated parkrun weekly finisher data from 32,470 Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) in England from January 2015 to February 2023 with Office of National Statistics (ONS) data on population and deprivation. Interrupted time series analysis using segmented Poisson regression models was used to estimate the immediate change in parkrun participation and the change in the rate of growth following the pandemic. Models were fitted for each Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintile separately to assess whether this effect differed by socioeconomic deprivation. Results Visualisation and interrupted time series analysis showed a significant and long-term decrease in parkrun participation following the reopening of parkrun events. This was consistent across all IMD quintiles, indicating that the inequalities in parkrun participation according to IMD observed prior to the pandemic remained after the pandemic. Between March 2020 and February 2023, almost 13 million fewer parkrun finishes are estimated to have occurred relative to what would have occurred in the absence of the pandemic. Conclusion The reduction in parkrun participation during the pandemic and following the reopening of events is likely to have negatively impacted wellbeing in would-be participants. Going forwards, policymakers must make the difficult trade-off between the long-term health and social implications of restricting outdoor physical activity events against the benefits associated with a reduction in infectious disease transmission.
Related Links	https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-024-20420-0.pdf
Ending Page	9
Page Count	9
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	14712458
DOI	10.1186/s12889-024-20420-0
Journal	BMC Public Health
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	24
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2024-10-23
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Public Health Medicine Epidemiology Biostatistics Vaccine Environmental Health Parkrun Physical activity Socioeconomic deprivation Ecological study Interrupted time series Medicine/Public Health
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Journal Impact Factor	3.5/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	3.9/2023

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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