The role of intermediaries in connecting community-dwelling adults to local physical activity and exercise: 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. An intermediary is a clinical or non-clinical professional based in primary care, community or voluntary settings. They support individuals referred to them to connect with appropriate community services with the goal of improving health and wellbeing. This may be a promising method to establish a connection to local physical activity and exercise; however the process has been poorly described to date. Objective: The objectives of this scoping review will be to identify and summarise the literature describing the process of connecting community-dwelling adults to an intermediary, the characteristics of these adults, the processes (role, practice and procedure) of an intermediary in connecting these adults to local physical activity and exercise 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 local physical activity and exercise 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 and exercise. 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.