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Medical encounters at community-based physical activity events (parkrun) in the UK

Charles R Pedlar1,2, Kyriaki Myrissa3, Megan Barry3

  • 1Faculty of Sport and Applied Performance Science, St Mary's University Twickenham, Twickenham, UK pedlarc@stmarys.ac.uk.

British Journal of Sports Medicine
|August 5, 2021
PubMed
Abstract

Insights

Medical emergencies during community running events like parkrun are very rare. Factors like male sex, older age, and less running experience slightly increase risk, but the overall safety supports these events for public health.

Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Sports Medicine
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Community-based physical activity events are crucial for public health.
  • Understanding medical encounter risks is vital for event safety and promotion.
  • The global inactivity crisis necessitates safe and accessible physical activity strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the incidence and clinical correlates of medical encounters during UK community physical activity events.
  • To assess the exposure risk associated with participation in parkrun events.
  • To evaluate the safety profile of large-scale community running events.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of medical data from 702 UK parkrun locations (2014-2019).
  • Inclusion of 29,476,294 participations to define incidence rates.
  • Statistical modeling to identify correlates of serious medical encounters.

Main Results:

  • Serious life-threatening encounters: 0.26/100,000 participations; fatalities: 0.056/100,000.
  • Increased risk associated with male sex, older age, slower run times, and less running experience.
  • Cardiac arrest (57%) and acute coronary syndromes (24%) were primary causes of serious events. Non-life-threatening events (39.2/100,000) mainly due to falls.

Conclusions:

  • Serious and fatal medical events during parkrun are extremely rare.
  • The safety of these events supports their role in combating inactivity.
  • Community running/walking events offer significant public health benefits.
Keywords:
cardiologydeathexercisepublic healthrunning

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