A Community-Based Integral Intervention for Promoting Active Ageing Among Older Adults: Reflections on Design Considerations

Background: Active ageing interventions increasingly incorporate digital elements, yet most focus on individual-level changes without considering physical and social environments. While frameworks exist for digital and community-based interventions separately, design considerations for integral interventions that combine physical, social, and digital components require further evaluation. Methods: This case study evaluated previously generated design considerations for community-based integral interventions through developing and implementing a group gardening activity at a Dutch senior centre. The study involved focus group discussions, an intergenerational hackathon for co-design, intervention development and deployment, and reflection sessions. Qualitative data were collected through research diaries, observations, audio recordings, and photographs. Results: Five out of 24 design considerations were found to be sufficiently applied in the case study. Key challenges emerged in recruitment strategies, community dynamics, technology integration, stakeholder engagement, and responsibility transfer. The case study approach provided high ecological validity while revealing the need for more strategic sharing of design considerations with stakeholders under limited resources. Conclusions: Community-based integral interventions show promise in promoting active ageing, and this study offers a starting point in this endeavour. The design considerations offer a useful structure for developing and reflecting such interventions, while needing to be more operationalized to support their implementation. The study suggests refining design considerations through multiple case studies across different settings and combining case study approaches with other evaluation methods to enhance their reliability and generalizability.