Organized community sport participation in children and youth with physical disability: a scoping review protocol

Children and youth living with physical disability have less opportunities to participate in meaningful organized physical activities in their communities than their typically developing peers. Equitable access to community sport programs that aim to support the health, social participation, and well-being of these children and youth is required. Frameworks for program implementation and evaluation offer practical tools for supporting quality participation. Limited research exists demonstrating the practical application of these conceptual model frameworks. The objective of this scoping review is to understand the extent and type of evidence in relation to organized community sport participation in children and youth with physical disabilities. This review will consider studies that explore organized sport participation for children and youth up to 25 years with physical disability in all geographical areas. Children and youth with only a cognitive disability, developmental disability, or the absence of a physical disability will be excluded. The databases to be searched include MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), SportDiscus (EBSCO), CINAHL (EBSCO), PEDro, Global Index Medicus and Google Scholar. Sources of unpublished studies and grey literature will also be searched. No language or publication date restrictions will be placed on the search. Two independent reviewers will perform title and abstract screening, and retrieval and assessment of full-text citations. Any disagreements that arise between the reviewers at each stage of the selection process will be resolved through discussion or with a third reviewer. A narrative synthesis of the results will be presented in conjunction with a tabular and/or graphic format.