The application of design thinking in physical activity research: a protocol for a scoping review

Despite the many health benefits, global levels of physical activity remain insufficient. Traditional approaches to promoting physical activity have shown limited success, indicating the need for innovative strategies. Human-centred design thinking (HCDT) is a creative problem-solving and solution generation approach that offers a novel method for developing tailored interventions by engaging communities and understanding their specific contexts. However, it is unclear to what extent HCDT is being applied in physical activity research. The purpose of this protocol is to specify how a scoping review will be conducted to identify, explore, and map the application of HCDT in physical activity research.

The scoping review protocol will follow Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework, encompassing five stages: identifying the research question; identifying relevant studies; selecting eligible studies; charting the data; and collating, summarising, and reporting the results. The scoping review will follow the reporting guidance in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses protocols (PRIMSA-P) and the PRIMSA-P checklist for reporting scoping reviews. The database literature search will be conducted using PubMed, SportDiscus, PsychINFO, CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, ProQuest, SCOPUS, and Web of Science. The inclusion criteria include: qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods studies or protocol papers; full-text availability; published after 2016 and in English; and studies with explicit use of HCDT. Two reviewers will screen titles, abstracts, and full texts for inclusion. Two reviewers will extract the data from included studies using a data extraction table. Findings from the studies will be aggregated to summarise recurring themes via a narrative report.

It is unknown how HCDT is currently being applied in physical activity research, despite its proven potential to address complex health challenges and offer innovative solutions. This scoping review will provide an overview of the current utilisation of HCDT, such as which HCDT approaches and activities are applied most often and where HCDT is being used for physical activity (i.e. populations, geographies). The scoping review findings will inform researchers, practitioners, and policymakers about the current state of HCDT in physical activity research.

This protocol has been registered within the Open Science Framework platform: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/F94PZ ).