Programme card

Country/coverage

• Singapore, national coverage.

Target population

• The entire adult population of Singapore (citizens and foreigners).

What modes/types/domains of physical activity (PA) does the programme promote?

• National Steps Challenge (NSC) encourages active lifestyles, and primarily promotes stepping activities, such as walking and running, as well as other moderate-to-vigorous PA.

Which of the seven best investments the programme addresses?

• Community-wide programmes.

• Public education on PA.

What sectors does it involve?

• NSC is a nationwide public health effort led by a governmental organisation, embracing partnerships with diverse organisations and industries in academia, technology, sports and recreation services and retails.

Estimated programme reach:

• The first four NSC seasons reached 1.3 million different participants—about 26% of the Singapore population aged 17 years and above (5.0 million as of June 20198).

What is special about this programme?

• With one challenge season every year, NSC is a scaled-up PA promotion programme that uses wearables and smartphone applications. It leverages behaviour insights from both scientific evidence and local health promotion practices, and focuses on one behaviour at a time. NSC also shares key resources with other health promotion programmes, which encourages participants to monitor PA and remain active even during breaks between NSC challenge periods. Various subchallenges are offered regularly to provide participants more fun ways to stay active individually and in groups, such as monthly thematic challenges, community and corporate challenges.

Key contacts:

• Nicole Lim (nicole_lim@hpb.gov.sg).

• Falk Müller-Riemenschneider (ephmf@nus.edu.sg).

Programme …