An innovative intergenerational intervention to promote co-physical activity in grandparents and their grandchildren: the ‘Ages get Active’ intervention – Development, insights and future directions

Abstract Background: Intergenerational physical activity programming is a promising approach to increase (co-)physical activity in children and older adults. Unfortunately, most of these programs do not take into account the needs and preferences of the target group and mostly focus on children and older adults who are not family-related. Furthermore, the development process of an intergenerational physical activity program often remains underexamined. This study aims to comprehensively describe the systematic development of an evidence-based, co-created intergenerational physical activity intervention, the ‘Ages get Active’ intervention, which jointly engages grandparents and their grandchildren in physical activity. Methods: The three stages and seven steps of the theoretical framework, the Behaviour Change Wheel, were described. This theoretical framework was combined with a participatory co-creation approach to develop an intergenerational physical activity program for grandparents and grandchildren. Six grandchildren (1 boy and 5 girls, M age 6.83; Std 1.17) and four grandparents (3 women and 1 man, M age 63.5; Std 3.11) participated in the co-creation sessions. A meeting with organizational stakeholders was organized to gain additional input. Results: Four intervention components emerged from the development phase: 1) an educational component; 2) organized group-based intergenerational movement sessions; 3) home-based (intergenerational) activities and 4) the promotion of community-based events. The intervention will start with an educational component where grandparents and parents will receive information about the intervention. During six weeks, six movement sessions will take place where grandparents and grandchildren will work on different aspects (coordination, strength,…) together. Grandparents and grandchildren will use a booklet with physical activities they can do together or individually at home and will also receive a list of events they can do together in the community. Conclusions: The ‘Ages get Active’ intervention was developed using the Behaviour Change Wheel in combination with co-creation. The comprehensive and transparent description of the steps of the Behaviour Change Wheel and how these steps were integrated into the co-creation sessions, findings and insights into the process development can help future researchers and health professionals in developing interventions for older adults (grandparents) and children (grandchildren).