The role of intermediaries in connecting community-dwelling adults to local physical activity and sport: A scoping review protocol

Introduction : Physical inactivity is a major global issue affecting health. Promoting, supporting and encouraging physical activity amongst community-dwelling adults is essential, especially in primary care services where the majority of healthcare contacts take place. An intermediary, a professional who supports individuals to connect with appropriate community and voluntary services with the goal of improving health and wellbeing, may be a promising method to establish a connection to local physical activity; however the process has been poorly described to date. Objective : The objective of this scoping review will be to identify and summarise the literature describing the process of connecting community-dwelling adults to an intermediary, the processes (role, practice and procedure) of an intermediary in connecting these adults to local physical activity and sport opportunities, and to map these processes of connection to outcomes. Methods : This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the scoping review methodology of the Joanna Briggs Institute. A comprehensive search strategy will identify relevant studies in Embase, Medline, Web of Science and CINAHL, along with a structured grey literature search. Studies which describe an intermediary connecting community-dwelling adults (aged ≥18 years) to a local physical activity and/or sport opportunity or other similar resource will be included. Data will be charted and narratively summarised. Intermediary processes will be mapped to outcomes related to physical activity, and the PAGER (patterns, advances, gaps, evidence for practice and research recommendations) framework will be used to identify evidence gaps and research recommendations. Conclusions: This scoping review will be the first to describe the process of an intermediary connecting community dwelling adults to local physical activity. This review will identify, map and summarise the existing research on the processes and outcomes. The results will also identify any evidence gaps and will guide future research.