Infusion Active Ageing Education Project

This project developed an Infusion Active Aging Education (IAAE) model to equip university students with age-friendly mindsets and capacities and empower older participants through intergenerational learning. The IAAE model encompasses (1) Identification of academic champions of different faculties; (2) Active infusion of co-created intergenerational activities into discipline-specific curricula; (3) Activity implementation; and (4) Evaluation. A total of 11 academic champions (faculty members from seven academic departments/schools at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University), 511 students and 129 older adults participated in this study during 2018–2020. Pre- and post-tests were conducted for students in both the intervention (n = 287) and comparison (n = 63) groups, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 29 older adult participants during 2018–2020. The results revealed significant improvements in the intervention group students’ knowledge, attitudes, skills, and professional interests related to aging, but not in the comparison group except for knowledge. Older adults reported increased understanding of young people, sense of self-worth, and generativity. The IAAE model effectively nurtures age-friendly professionals of the future through enriching university curricula with intergenerational interactions using a participatory and non-prescriptive approach.