Criss-crossing the urban space: effectiveness and reach of a gamified intervention to promote daily physical activity among children and adolescents

The potential of active mobility in order to promote physical activity in children and adolescents has so far been underutilized. This paper presents the results of the intervention Kreuz & Quer, a social and gamified approach to help youth become more active in their immediate living environment. The focus here is on analyzing digitally collected data with regard to the effectiveness and reach of the intervention. A total of 8891 participants took part in six rounds of the intervention from spring 2022 to fall 2023. This corresponds to a reach of 14.98% of the children and adolescents living in the affected city districts. The participants walked 1.02 km a day, which is more than the German average. Kreuz & Quer can be described as a successful intervention. However, due to the lack of reliable comparative figures and methodological deficits, no definitive answer can be drawn regarding the effectiveness and reach in comparison with previous studies.