Peer-to-peer health promotion interventions among African American men: a scoping review protocol

BACKGROUND: Health promotion efforts among African American men have been met with significant challenges and have produced limited results. Interventions that do not align with the values, perspectives, and preferences of African American men often produce less effective results. Research among African American men has provided compelling evidence that these men prefer informal networks of health support. Recent successful health promotion efforts among these men have benefited from peer-to-peer models of implementation. To date, no known scoping or systematic review of peer-to-peer health promotion interventions among African American men has been conducted. The goal of this scoping review is to understand the extent of, design, implementation, and use of peer-to-peer interventions to promote health, improve quality of life, and prevent disease among African American men. METHODS: A review of the literature will be performed in PubMED, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, and Web of Science. The development of this protocol was guided by the work of Arksey and O’Malley and the PICOS statement. Reporting will be guided by the PRISMA-ScR checklist. Eligible studies include those testing the effects of a peer-to-peer health promotion intervention targeting African American men. A comparison group will not be required. For the purposes of the current review, “peers” will be limited to other African American men. An initial screening of the titles and abstracts of potentially eligible studies will be completed by two independent reviewers. The full text of records that appear to meet the eligibility criteria will be accessed and further screened. Data will then be extracted and collected using a custom Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Extracted data will include authors’ name and publication year, target health issue(s), design of the intervention, components of the intervention, peer-led components of the intervention, peer role, length and type of training for peer leaders, intervention duration, frequency of the intervention, study design and number of participants, and main outcomes. Finally, results will be presented in table format and summarized in text format. DISCUSSION: Results will have implications for the design, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion interventions among African American men. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42020198664 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13643-021-01737-y.