Evaluation of community physical activity programs in Brazil: a scoping review

Community physical activity programs were created to encourage and increase the practice of physical activity in the Brazilian population and promote healthy life habits. The Brazilian Ministry of Health invested in the evaluation of these programs and consolidated partnerships that favor the development of relevant evidence on the topic. The current study aimed to identify and summarize the scientific highlights on the approaches and results of evaluations performed in the Health Academy Program and City Academy Program. This is a scoping review based on the methodology of the Joanna Briggs Institute. We used the MEDLINE via PubMed, LILACS, Scopus, and Cochrane databases, the website of the Health Academy Program, the Catalogue of Theses and Dissertations of the Brazilian Graduate Studies Coordinating Board, and the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. The sample included quantitative or qualitative primary studies with no limit on year of publication. Twenty-four studies published from 2009 to 2020 were selected and subdivided according to the approaches to evaluation: evaluability, sustainability, process (supply and structure), outcome (impact and satisfaction), and degree of inference (adequacy, plausibility, and probability). The results of the evaluations showed that the programs offer various activities, positively impact users' health indicators, and contribute to the increase in leisure-time physical activity. The evaluation of these programs is essential for the administration, health services, and healthcare workers, since it allows verifying the implementation of the proposed activities, coverage, access, impact, and interference by the political context in their continuity.