Asia Pacific Physical Activity Network

Events

Agita Mundo World Physical Activity Day - 6th April

The World Health Organisation (WHO) celebrates World Health Day each year on 7th April to mark the founding of WHO. Since 2002, Agita Mundo has commemorated 6th April as the World Physical Activity Day. This year, the theme for Agita Mundo is Physical Activity in the Workplace.

The Agita Mundo “Move the World” website is calling for registrations of workplace events to celebrate this day. Events may take place between April 1st and 10th. In 2006, more than 2200 events took place in five continents around the world.

Visit the website at www.agitamundo.org

9th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM) meeting: "Bridging Behaviour and Health - connecting the Hemispheres"

Report by Dr Philayrath Phongsavan, Centre for Physical Activity and Health, University of Sydney

The 9^th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine (ICBM) meeting in Bangkok, goes boldly where it has not gone before.

Around 900 delegates from developed and developing countries convened in Bangkok in December 2006 for four days to share experiences and discuss research and policy implications of behavioural medicine for health. The assembled delegates were biomedical and behavioural/social scientists, bureaucrats and government representatives concerned with the impact of behavioral, psychosocial, environmental, sociocultural, and genetic factors on health and the integration of these factors for disease prevention, public health and health promotion, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. This was the 9^th meeting of the International Society of Behavioral Medicine (ISBM) with previous congresses, held every two years, in Uppsala, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Washington DC, Copenhagen, Brisbane, Helsinki and Mainz. The Bangkok meeting was hosted by the Thailand Society of Behavioral Medicine and this was the first time that the Congress was held in an Asian country. As a region with the most populous and the most rapidly growing economy, this global meeting was particularly timely for a continent that is also facing the rising burden of non-communicable diseases.

Processes and opportunities
The format was conference-style involving keynote addresses, symposia, roundtable discussions, teaching and training workshops, oral and poster presentations. As the conference theme was “Bridging Behavior and Health – Connecting the Hemispheres” many presentations included frontline ‘real world’ health development projects being presented alongside the traditional scientific presentations about bio-behavioural mechanisms, clinical diagnosis and randomized controlled trials. Presentations relating to the emerging global health threats and opportunities for behavioural medicine were also given prominence throughout the four days with influences of rapid socio-economic transition and environmental changes on infectious and chronic diseases and on behavioural and societal responses a primary focus of many keynote addresses, symposia and oral presentations.

Physical activity sessions featured strongly in the congress scientific program and offered many early-career researchers in the Asia-Pacific region an opportunity to meet experts and experienced researchers. However, very few physical activity presentations from developing countries were expressed. The paucity of research coming out of developing settings is probably a combination of the limited physical activity program and research developments that have been done in these settings to date, the inability of people currently working in physical activity to attend such a meeting, the lower priority given to physical activity research and development agenda by governments and academic institutions in developing countries, which in turns links to the limited cadres of a capacitated workforce to profile physical activity for health.

Looking forward
International meetings such as the ICBM are major opportunities for networking local researchers and practitioners keen to nurture their regional workforce capacity for physical activity research and development. In what shape or form the 9^th ICBM meeting gave rise to cadres of physical activity advocates and researchers, particularly in the host country is yet to be seen. But it was interesting to note the enthusiasm and energy generated by the small group of Thai delegates with physical activity interests determined to be the catalyst of change. The next 10^th ICBM is in Tokyo, in 2008 with the theme “Drawing from Traditional Sources and Basic Research to Improve Health in Individuals, Communities, and Populations”. Maybe by then physical activity research and development in the developing countries of the Asia Pacific region will be widely showcased at this and other national and international meetings.

International Course on Physical Activity and Public Health (IPAPH) in Asia-Pacific Region

The 5^th International Course on Physical Activity and Public Health (IPAPH) was held 9-11 May 2006 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia . The course was jointly conducted by the Ministry of Health Malaysia and the Centre for Physical Activity and Health (CPAH) at University of Sydney. It was supported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

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