Global stakeholder perspectives on barriers and facilitators to community-based physical activity in adults living with disabilities: A systematic review protocol

Abstract

The benefits of physical activity (PA) for health have been extensively studied; however, people with disabilities (PWDs) are more likely to be inactive compared to the general population. The topic of barriers and facilitators to PA for PWDs has been studied, but most reviews have focused on specific impairments, institution-based exercise programs, and/or persons who reside in high-income countries. A comprehensive review describing the barriers and facilitators to PA for community-dwelling PWDs (including developmental, intellectual, sensory, physical, and mental disabilities) from a global perspective has not been published. The aim of this paper is to describe the protocol used to conduct a systematic review concerning the socioenvironmental factors that encourage and discourage PA in PWDs around the world, by investigating the current knowledge, identifying gaps in the literature, and providing guidance for future research and guidelines. MEDLINE All, PsycINFO, and Web of Science Core Collection were searched. Gray literature sources included were extracted from the three main databases used for the literature search. A total of 6434 records were identified for the initial title/abstract screen. The following data were extracted from the final full-text articles: author, title, publication information (journal, year), study design, methodology, data collection instruments employed, language, country or countries where the study was conducted, subject characteristics, disabilities reported, disability characteristics, subjects' mobility level, a relation of stakeholder(s) to PWDs (self, family), PA mode, barriers, and facilitators.

Keywords

• barriers
• facilitators
• people with disabilities
• physical activity
• systematic review protocol