Abstract
Thailand had implemented the first national steps challenge in 2020 by Ministry of Public Health with the goal to achieve the distance of walking and running at 60 kilometers in 60 days during 1 February to 31 March 2020. The challenge aimed to increase awareness on physical activity at country-wide level. This study aimed to determine the achievement of 60-km goal of Thailand steps challenge season 1. Website-based data of 203,910 records, of participants who sent distance data, was retrieved and analyzed by descriptive parameters and logistic regression. The achievement of accumulative distance of at least 60 km was analyzed by participants’ demographics such as sex, age, body mass index, region, urbanity, and type of participant. The findings revealed that around 46% of participants, who sent distance data, achieved the project goal. Men achieved the goal higher than women. Participants aged 30-59 years, not being obese, living in Bangkok, living in urban areas, and being public health officers, achieved the project goal higher than their counterparts. Being obese, living in rural areas, and being village health volunteers, were less likely to achieve the project goal (adjusted Odds ratio = 0.89, 0.83, 0.43 by multivariate analysis, respectively). The study recommended that the national steps challenge should be continuously implemented by using more strategies to engage participants with different characteristics throughout the project.
