Prescription Parkrun is a retrograde step, Aircas Doctor

General Practitioners are now “prescription” parkrun for their cats as part of social prescription initiative to promote preventive care. Butt The BMJDr. Margaret McCartney Argues That Turning Parkrun into the prescription medication to Walk in the Park and is a Retrograde Step.

Parkrun is an organized, timed, and free 5 km run, jog, walk, or whet on Saturday mornings – in parks, on beaches, or on trails around the world, but mainly in the uk, where it originated.

Parkrun has some paid staff, but the work of setting up, timing, and result processing is doe by local volunteer teams. Around 200,000 People Now Take Part Each Week.

“I Love Parkrun and Believe That It Can Make A Real Difference to Public Health,” Write McCartney. But “prescription”? Prescription is for drugs that are, in General, Deemed Too Dangerous for the Public To Have Direct Access to. Are we really meant to Encourage People to Consider Exercise in the Same Domain?

Turning Parkrun into the prescription makes it Less About Pleasure and Fun, More Like Work and Compliance, She Argues. “This Approach DoesN’t Support Patient Autonomy or Embedding Social Resources for Community. Instead, It Grapples with Gatekeeping and – LITRALLY – MEDICALIZES A WALK IN THE PARK.”

What’s More, Prescription Parkrun is not, the Some Researchers have described it, “Simple, Cost-Effective Solution for Sustainability, Improving Well, and Disease Prevention.”

While Some People May Very Much Like It, Get All of These Advantages, Regularly Attend, and Enjoy All the Benefits That Come With Socializing, Fresh Air, And Friendly Venues For Exercise, McCartney Points Out That 43% of People Who Register for Parkrun Don´t Attended, 22% Participate Only Once, and People Who describe Themselves as Physically Inactive Are Less Likely to Return.

The Royal College of General Practitioners’ Approval for “Prescription” Parkrun Could Also Be Considered Catnip to Commercial Sponsors, She Adds. Example, The Advertising Standards Authority Previously Told HealthSpan, Vitamin Supplier, to Change Its Health Claims After Parkrun Included One of Their Adverts in Their Newsletter.

“I Still Go to Parkrun. But partnerships Risk Commercial Opportunity, and Mediclinging Exercise is a retrograde Step. Resources Should Belong to the Community, Not to Doctors,” She concludes.