This 3 year project aims to design, test, and evaluate digital tools to facilitate structured physical activity programs for older adults. It will examine using digital approaches for two existing initiatives: intergenerational physical activity (IGPA) and sports-based intergenerational reminiscence (SBIR). The project will involve co-production groups of older adults and younger people providing input into digital design and testing products. It will also involve working with an existing program called "Generations Active Together" that has university students lead physical activity sessions for older adults. Measures will assess experiences, attitudes and capacities of both older and younger participants.

1. Project GOALD
(Generating Older Active Lives Digitally):
An Intergenerational Co-production Approach
to Health Promotion in Later Life
Professor Catherine Hennessy
Chair in Ageing
University of Stirling

2. • 3 year collaboration between the University
of Stirling and the University of Plymouth’s
Centre for Health Technology
• Aim: to examine how we can design, test,
deliver and evaluate digital tools to facilitate
structured activity programmes for health
promotion in older age
• Investigate the feasibility and impact of
creating a digital approach to two existing
initiatives, intergenerational physical activity
(IGPA) and sports-based intergenerational
reminiscence (SBIR)
• Demonstrate the potential for development
of related products and services to enhance
support for health in later life

3. Co-production approach to research
• Older Persons Advisory Group recruited through project partner
organisations (e.g. Generations Working Together, Active
Stirling, UKActive, Sports Heritage Scotland)
• 20 researcher-supported Intergenerational Co-production
Groups (ICGs): Community dwelling older people and younger
participants in Cornwall (64) and Scotland (32) and 48
residents from 12 care homes (16 Stirling/32 Cornwall) will be
recruited via partner organisations. Each ICG will meet over 6
months to share experiences of sport and physical activity and
explore and test assistive technologies for either IGPA or SBIR
• Input into digital design and feedback on products developed
through SMEs

4. Active Stirling ‘Generations Active Together’
• Intergenerational physical activity (PA) initiative that engages
Year 11 students in a sports leadership module to foster
understanding of ageing, dementia and how physical activity
can improve well-being in later life
• Includes learning about age-specific national guidelines for
PA, lifetimes benefits of PA, attitudes towards ageing and
dementia, and mythbusting about physical capabilities of
older adults
• Students develop and deliver a face-to-face programme of PA
once weekly for 30 minutes with older adults in community
centre/care home for 6 weeks each term

5. Active Stirling ‘Generations Active Together’

6. • Flora, P.K. and Faulkner, G.E. (2007). Physical activity: an
innovative context for intergenerational programming,
Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 4(4):63-74.
• McConnell, J. and Naylor, P.J. (2016). Feasibility of an
intergenerational physical activity leadership intervention,
Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 14(3): 220-241.
• Bunsenso, A. et al. (2021). Exploring the enjoyment of
intergenerational physical activity, Journal of Functional
Morphology and Kinesiology, 6(51).
• Strand, K.A. (2012). Intergenerational exergaming physical
activity program increases flexibility and strength in older
adults, Experimental Biology, 26(1).

7. Sports-Based Intergenerational Reminiscence
‘Sport creates resilient ties to personal
and collective pasts, and can evoke
strong memories and lasting
connections between people, places,
and communities. These connections
suggest the suitability of sport as a
theme for Reminiscence Therapy
interventions’ (Hawkins, Ramshaw,
Hooker and Walker, 2020)

8. • Coll-Planas, L. Et. al. (2017). Developing evidence for
football (soccer) interventions within long-term care: a
cooperative approach applied in Scotland and Spain,
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association,
18(4): 355-360.
• Clark, M. et. al. (2016). Integrated working and
intergenerational projects: a study of the use of
sporting memories, Journal of Integrated Care, 24(5/6):
300-312.
• Haynes, R. (2019). From sporting past to future history:
sport heritage and intergenerational learning in
Glasgow, Sport in History, 40(2): 257-277.

9. • Levy, B.R., Slade, M.D., Kunkel, S. and Kasl,
S.V. (2002) Longevity increased by positive
self-perceptions of aging, Journal of
Personality and Social
Psychology, 83(2): 261-270.
• Levy BR, Slade MD, Pietrzak RH, Ferrucci L.
(2020) When culture influences genes:
positive age beliefs amplify the cognitive-
aging benefit of APOE ε2. Journals of
Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences
And Social Sciences, 75:e1
• Levy, B.R., Slade, M.D. Pietrzak, R.H. and
Ferrucci, L. (2018) Positive age beliefs
protect against dementia even among elders
with high-risk gene. PLoS ONE 13(2):
e0191004.
• Levy BR, Zonderman AB, Slade MD, Ferrucci L.
(2009) Age stereotypes held earlier in life
predict cardiovascular events in later life.
Psychological Science, 20:296-8.

10. Younger persons measures
• Experience and expectations of intergenerational
programme participation
• Children’s Perceptions of Aging and the Elderly (Aday
et. al., 1991)
• Facts on Aging Quiz (Palmore, 1977)
• Attitudes towards older people
• Physical activity, sport and digital technology

11. Older persons measures
• Experience and expectations of intergenerational
programme participation
• Attitudes to Ageing questionnaire (Laidlaw et. al., 2007)
• Digital readiness, e-health literacy, digital
inclusion/adoption
• Views of reminiscence
• Physical activity and functional capacity
• CHAMPS physical activity questionnaire for older adults
(Stewart et. al., 2012)
• Social identity and support