A scoping review of photovoice studies concerning greenspaces and their impacts on health: Protocol

The objective of this scoping review is to characterize the extent and nature of the available research on photovoice studies examining how greenspaces influence community health, and to identify community actions and advocacy arising from these participatory projects.

Greenspaces have been shown to support physical, mental, and social health. Yet research often overlooks community perspectives, particularly in arid regions. Photovoice enables individuals to document and reflect on their lived environments, providing unique insights into the relationships between greenspaces, health, and community wellbeing. Synthesizing photovoice studies that examine how greenspaces impact health across different ecosystems and landscape designs is essential to capture community-driven knowledge and outcomes, including initiatives that inform policy and practice. The protocol is registered in Open Science Framework (https:// doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/2DYGA).

This review will include primary studies employing photovoice methods with human participants, of any demographic or cultural background, that focus on greenspaces and associated health outcomes. Eligible studies may use qualitative or mixed methods designs, provided photovoice is a core component. Quantitative-only studies, reviews, editorials, and those addressing distal health measures will be excluded.

Searches will be conducted in electronic databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, ERIC, CINAHL, Web of Science) and relevant grey literature sources. No language restrictions will be applied, and the time frame will extend from January 1997, when photovoice was first described as a methodology, to the present. Non-English studies will be translated using available translation tools and/or reviewed by a multilingual member of the team or colleague where feasible. Screening and data extraction will be conducted in duplicate using Covidence. Findings will be summarized descriptively and synthesized thematically. Empirical studies will be appraised using the JBI Critical Appraisal Tools, while grey literature source quality will be assessed using the AACODS checklist. Confidence in the synthesized qualitative findings will be assessed using GRADE-CERQual (Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative Research).