LESSONS LEARNED ON AREA - BASED PROMOTING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY FOR HEALTHY PUBLIC POLICY

Abstract

The objectives of this research article were to study the lesson learned on promoting physical activity for healthy public policy. Forty key informants comprised ten executives, permanent secretaries, members of local administrative organizations council, seven staffs from local administrative organizations, six project mentors, seven staffs from provincial and district public health offices and sub-district health promoting hospitals, and ten who are responsible for physical activity jobs. The data were collected by reviewing secondary data, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions between April and July 2022. Then, the data were verified by data and methods triangulation and analyzed by content analysis. The results found that the area context can be separated into four characteristics: urban society, agricultural society, Muslim society, and traditional fishing society. The mechanisms for promoting physical activity policies were three main issues: 1) the development of physical activity leaders; both official and natural leaders to inspire the others; 2) the development of operational mechanisms with other networks in the communities and providing areas for promoting physical activity in the communities, both public areas, areas in the elderly schools and local community schools. Physical activity of community members conformed with the community lifestyle attached to local culture and local wisdom such as dancing through body language, retro dance, baslobe, kite surfing, exercising with traditional equipment: i.e., loincloths and sand cylinders, and physical activities linked to tourism including agricultural tourism, cultural tourism, and natural tourism; and 3) the development of the supporting system through the program of developing and monitoring projects, and the local mentors from local government organizations, health service units, educational institutions, and local health security funds.