A Parkrun event in Newcastle, UK
Alan Harbottle/Alamy
Taking part in Parkrun events – a free weekly activity where people are encouraged to walk or run for 5 kilometres – appears to improve life satisfaction.
Parkrun is a charity that hosts events in 22 countries, including the UK, US and Australia. Previous studies have shown that taking part improves physical and mental health.
To learn more, Steve Haake at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK and his colleagues analysed 548 people, aged 18 to 83, who varied in exercise quantity. They were surveyed immediately after registering with Parkrun, which partly sponsored the study, and six months later. In the surveys, the participants ranked their life satisfaction from 0 to 10.
This revealed that taking part in Parkrun events was linked to an increase in life satisfaction of around 0.25 points, on average. For context, people in the UK generally reported a drop of 0.4 during the height of the covid-19 pandemic, says Haake, who is on Parkrun’s research board.
The participants estimated that Parkrun was responsible for about 25 per cent of their 0.25 point increase in life satisfaction, on average. While this is a small improvement, “one thing we say in terms of public health is that a tiny change in a lot of people is actually quite meaningful and worth having”, says Clare Stevinson at Loughborough University in the UK.
Each person took part in two Parkrun events, on average. This may have spurred other life changes, such as being more active in general, says Haake.
“Parkrun gives you that socially supportive, free environment – usually in nice parks – that’s very encouraging and which helps people stick to a regular exercise habit they perhaps wouldn’t otherwise,” says Stevinson. “That has knock-on benefits on health and weight, mental health and social well-being.”
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