DOHA: Aspetar aims to beat last year’s record of 362 million steps at the second edition of its Step Into Health in Campuses challenge which seeks to promote walking among students and school staff.
Last year’s inaugural campaign included five universities — Stenden University Qatar (SUQ), College of the North Atlantic in Qatar (CNA-Q), University of Calgary Qatar (UCQ), and the male and female campuses of the Qatar Community College (QCC) and Qatar University (QU) and pedometers were distributed to students and staff for use.
The campaign saw over 50 percent active participation rate and 2,400 members, including students and staff, who achieved 362 million steps in three months.
Six more universities have been added this year — Northwestern University in Qatar (NUQ), Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq), Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCU-Q), Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar.
The Step Into Health team is visiting these campuses until December 4 to implement the initiative not only to encourage students and staff to walk more, but also inspire them to make an active behavioural change.
This years’ upgraded mobile application and website employ more social media communication to allow more interaction between members, and includes upgraded health features for better control of physical activity performance, calorie intake and sleep patterns.
Challenging recruits to walk more, the initiative will be followed by the launch of walking challenges, which also aim to increase participation in sport programmes to support and facilitate the well-being of students and staff.
Abdulla Saeed Al Mohannadi, Health Promotion Researcher, said: “We encourage all students and staff members of the Step Into Health in Campuses initiative to benefit from such a great health programme, to walk more, look into their active behaviour, and realise that together we can create a healthier, active community in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030.
“It is our aim to implement walking as a form of physical activity on campuses, but also to offer more information about healthy active lifestyles through our new upgraded website and mobile application,” he added.
In addition, the Inter Universities Walking Challenge and the Individual University Walking Challenge will be launched on December 7 ending on March 14, with an awards ceremony on March 25.
Prizes will be awarded to individual walkers that averaged 10,000 steps a day during the challenge period, as well as the top three universities. Participating universities will also be recognised.
The Peninsula
