Dissemination, Implementation, and Sustainment of Consensus and Position Statements for Professionals in Physical Activity: A Scoping Review Protocol

Physical activity enhances health-related outcomes (Posadzki et al., 2020), reduce the risk of non-communicable disease (Anderson & Durstine, 2019), and support mental health and wellbeing (Mahindru et al., 2023). Whilst these benefits are widely detailed, the reported incidence of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours remains high (Hallal et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2012; Ozemek et al., 2019; World Health Organisation, 2018). To reduce this prevalence, dissemination, implementation, and sustainment strategies must be adopted to enhance the uptake of physical activity interventions and recommendations. Namely, consensus statements and position statements are trusted sources of evidence that are created by expert consensus, and use up-to-date research to inform recommendations to the target population, including practitioners and professionals, as well as system actors. The present study aims to identify and assess the strategies that have been utilised to disseminate, implement, and sustain physical activity consensus statements and position statements targeted towards primary and system users, originating from the UK and Ireland, as well as those with a global scope.