Testing the effectiveness of a health intervention that manipulates the social environment at active leisure events in Scotland

This study investigates how an intervention, the parkwalker Initiative, impacted the demographics of participants at parkrun. The intervention manipulated the social environment at events through using a volunteer walker who encourages other walkers.This study showed that finishing times slowed at parkrun events after the introduction of the initiative suggesting that a barrier to participation for some walkers had been overcome. The level of engagement with the initiative was associated with the level of slowing in finishing times.Active leisure events can successfully manipulate their social environment to increase participation by specific target demographics. It was also notable that the slowing involved increases in the proportion of slower runners as well as walkers. The findings have implications for event organisers and practitioners engaging in social prescription of parkrun who might be best directing patients to events with a regular parkwalker.