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Background: Whilst the benefits of physical activity for health and wellbeing are recognised, population levels of activity remain low. Significant inequalities exist, with socioeconomically disadvantaged populations being less physically active and less likely to participate in community events. We investigated the perceived benefits from participation in a weekly running/walking event by those living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas and doing the least physical activity.Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was emailed to 2,318,135 parkrun participants in the UK. Demographic and self-reported data was collected on life satisfaction, happiness, health status, physical activity, motives, and the perceived benefits of parkrun. Motivation, health status and benefits were compared for groups defined by level of physical activity at parkrun registration and residential Index of Multiple Deprivation.Results: 60,000 completed surveys were received (2.7% of those contacted). Respondents were more recently registered with parkrun (3.1 v. 3.5 years) and had a higher frequency of participation than non-respondents (14.5 v. 3.7 parkruns per year). Those who were inactive at registration and from socioeconomically deprived areas reported lower happiness, lower life satisfaction and poorer health than the full sample. They were more likely to want to improve their physical health, rather than get fit or lose weight. Of those reporting less than one bout of activity a week at registration, 88% (87% in the most socioeconomically deprived areas) increased their physical activity level and 52% (65% in the most socioeconomically deprived areas) reported improvements to overall health behaviours. Previously inactive respondents from the most socioeconomically deprived areas reported greater improvements to fitness (93% v. 89%), physical health (90% v. 85%), happiness (83% v. 79%) and mental health (76% v. 69%).Conclusion: The least active respondents from the most socioeconomically deprived areas reported changes to their activity levels and benefits to their health and wellbeing since participating in parkrun. Whilst the challenge of identifying how community initiatives like parkrun can better engage with the least active and most socioeconomically deprived remains, if this can be achieved, then such interventions can have a critical public health role in addressing inequalities in benefits associated with recreational physical activity.

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Background parkrun, an international movement which organises free weekly 5km running events, has been widely praised for encouraging inactive individuals to participate in physical activity. Recently, parkrun received funding to establish 200 new events across England, specifically targeted at deprived communities. This study aims to investigate the relationships between geographic access, deprivation, and participation in parkrun, and to inform the planned expansion by proposing future event locations. Methods We conducted an ecological spatial analysis, using data on 455 parkrun events, 2,842 public green spaces, and 32,844 English census areas. Poisson regression was applied to investigate the relationships between the distances to events, deprivation, and parkrun participation rates. Model estimates were incorporated into a location-allocation analysis, to identify locations for future events that maximise deprivation-weighted parkrun participation. Results The distance to the nearest event (in km) and the Index of Multiple Deprivation (score) were both independently negatively associated with local parkrun participation rates. Rate ratios were 0.921 (95%CI = 0.921-0.922) and 0.959 (0.959-0.959), respectively. The recommended 200 new event locations were estimated to increase weekly runs by 6.9% (from 82,824 to 88,506). Of the additional runs, 4.1% (n=231) were expected to come from the 10% most deprived communities. Conclusion Participation in parkrun is wide spread across England. We provide recommendations for new parkrun event location, in order to increase participation from deprived communities. However, the creation of new events alone is unlikely to be an effective strategy. Further research is needed to study how barriers to participation can be reduced.

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