Run, walk, cheer or volunteer: a patient and public involvement survey

Abstract

Background: Children with chronic diseases have been reported to participate in less regular physical activity (PA) than peers without chronic diseases; and less than recommended in guidelines. Sheffield Children's Foundation Trust (SCFT) is an Active Hospitals pilot site, exploring options to facilitate PA for all children. One option is collaboration with Junior Parkrun: a free, weekly 2 km running event for children. The team investigated whether Junior Parkrun was of interest to guardians of children attending SCFT to increase PA.

Aims: This patient and public involvement survey assessed perceptions of PA for children attending SCFT according to their accompanying guardians. This will inform a possible collaboration between SCFT and Junior Parkrun.

Methods: A three-part, 14-question survey was developed, including demographics (age, ethnicity, postcode); perceptions of PA (barriers and facilitators); PA behaviours self-reported on Likert scales; and perceptions of Junior Parkrun. Guardians were asked whether they and their child would be interested in attending Junior Parkrun with SCFT staff support. This was distributed to guardians of children attending outpatient appointments.

Results: 126 guardians responded. The average age of child was 10 years 10 months. 29.1% of guardians supported daily PA for their child. Almost half of respondents reported their child would be interested in attending Junior Parkrun. Of those not interested, the most common reason was travel.

Conclusion: The findings highlighted PA barriers perceived by guardians, and identified that almost half of respondents would be interested in attending Junior Parkrun. A collaboration between Junior Parkrun and SCFT could be explored.

Keywords: Adolescent; Children and exercise; Children's health and exercise; Exercise; Health promotion.

Figure 1

Responses to questions on a Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree).

Figure 2

Responses to questions on a Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree).

Figure 3

Average responses to questions on a Likert scale, according to whether participants were or were not interested in attending Junior Parkrun (1=strongly disagree, 2=somewhat disagree, 3=neither agree nor disagree, 4=somewhat agree, 5=strongly agree).