TCC showcased our research and advocacy works in IUHPE 21

On August 25-29, 2013, the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) convened its 21^st world conference in Pattaya, Thailand, hosted by one of its member, Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) and participated by nearly 2,200 people from more than 80 countries all over the world.

IUHPE gave opportunities for health promotion professionals to showcase their works in forms of symposium, oral presentation or poster.  Thailand Cycling Club (TCC) submitted 5 stories from its ThaiHealth-supported ‘Walking and Cycling Policy Advocacy Programme’ to compete, one for oral presentation and five for poster, and all were selected from more than 2,000 being submitted.

The five posters were as follows: (1) Preferred choice of pedestrian road crossing in Bangkok” by Sirima Panyametheekul, (2) Motivations, constraints and behaviors of bicyclists in Thonburi, Thailand” by Sirikoy Chutataweesawas, (3) Factors affecting decision on bicycle daily uses for bike users in Thailand and (4)Factors affecting decision on bicycle uses for non-bike users in Thailand” by Thongchai Panswad (TCC Founder and President), and (5) Health-risk perception and attitude toward walking and bicycling among the urbanized population by Kasem Nakhonkhet. Content of poster (2), (3) and (4) came from analysis of findings from a research conducted in 9 provinces of Thailand in 2011. 

On the other hand, an oral presentation, “Promotion of Walking and Cycling in Daily Activities: A Best Investment for Health” was given by Gawin Chutima, a TCC Committee Member, in a room with the theme “Health enhancing physical activity and the built environment”.  There were five presenters; other four were from Taiwan, Singapore, the Netherlands and Australia.

The TCC Committee Member showcased an advocacy process that resulted in a resolution on ‘Systems and Structures for Promotion of Walking and Cycling in Daily Life’ adopted by Thailand’s 5th National Health Assembly in December 2012 and later approved by the National Health Commission.  It is now waiting for submission to the Government Cabinet for consideration. 

The resolution is based on a rationale that promotion of walking and cycling helps not only ensure that the people have sufficient physical activity to prevent and deal with non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the main causes of death around the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries, but also reduce traffic, environment, energy and social-cultural problems, which in turn would lead to better health.  All of these impacts can be measured in economic terms.  The resolution asked 10 different ministries to integrate walking and cycling promotion in their policies and take certain actions to promote walking and cycling in daily life. 

It can be then concluded, as Mr. Chutima argues, that advocating promotion of walking and cycling as a public policy would be consistent with the global health strategy, ‘Health in All Policies’ (HiAP) and is ‘A Best Investment for Health’ which is the theme of this 21^st IUHPE World Conference.

Reported by Gawin Chutima

(September, 2 2013)

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