A scoping review will be carried out to map the studies available in the topic of interest. The study will follow the recommendations proposed by Arksey and O'Malley, being subdivided into five stages: identification of the guiding question; identification of relevant studies; selection of studies; mapping of information; grouping; summary and report of results(15). This scoping review will follow the reporting guidelines and criteria set in Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review (PRISMA)(16). Additionally, the checklist of verification of Preferred Report Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis for Scope Reviews (PRISMA-ScR)(17) will be used to guarantee the quality of the publication, corroborating the adequacy of the constituent parts (Additional File 1).
The scope review is conceptualized as a tool used to map the main concepts that support a research area. In addition, they are useful to gather the knowledge available in emerging evidence, such as Covid-19, for addressing issues beyond those related to the effectiveness or experience of an intervention(18). The realization of this scope review will also recognize the impacts of social distance on the mobility of the older adults, as well as identify gaps and encourage the development of preventive strategies to maintain functionality.
Identification of the research question
What are the impacts of social distance as a way of preventing Covid-19 on the mobility of the older people?
What are the recommended interventions to mitigate possible negative effects of social distance on mobility?
How are these recommendations being disseminated to reach older persons?
Information sources and search strategy
The strategy for inclusion of studies in this review will be based on the recommendations of the protocol of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI)(18). The search will take place with a standardized protocol in the databases: Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (LILACS), consulted by the Virtual Health Library (VHL), and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), via PubMed; Web of Science, via Main Collection (Thomson Reuters Scientific) and SCOPUS. In addition, documents and reports with recommendations from governmental organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), National Health Service UK (NHS), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Ministry of Health (MS) will also be consulted. Initially, a search was made at MEDLINE and CINAHL in July 2020 to retrieve articles dealing with the theme. The titles and abstracts were read and the words contained in them were used to develop the complete search strategy, including the keywords. Descriptors and keywords will be combined with the Boolean terms “AND”, “OR” and “NOT. A complete search strategy for the PubMed database is included in Additional File 2. No time limit and language will be established in the searches.
Selection of elegible studies
The mnemonic strategy PCC (Population, Concept and Context) will be used for the inclusion of studies based on the research question.
Population
The review will consider studies involving the older people, however, no age limit will be defined for such classification, since this chronological marker may vary according to the location studied.
Concept
Two concepts will be studied in this review. The primary concept is mobility, conceptualized as the ability to move independently from one point to another, constituting an important factor for maintaining autonomy and independence(19). And the secondary concept is aimed at social distance, which in the approach most accepted by the scientific community, refers to reducing the interaction between people to reduce the transmission of a virus(6).
Context
The context for this review will be studies related to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Sars-Cov-2 virus.
Type of records
This scope review will consider all methodological approaches (original articles, literature reviews, editorials and guidelines) that necessarily address the recommendations on measures of social distance and the impacts on mobility of elderly people related to the new Coronavirus that causes Covid-19. We will use a wide variety of methods to search for relevant grey literature and information. Expert’s opinions, editorials, and documents and reports published on relevant organisations (governmental and nongovernmental websites, professional associations, etc) will be searched and Internet search engines (e.g. www.google.com) and grey literature databases (e.g.opengrey.eu) will be used(20).
Study selection
After the final search in indexed sources and in the grey literature, duplicate articles will be excluded and two independent reviewers will read the titles and abstracts. In case of doubts from reviewers regarding the relevance of a study based on its title and abstract, the full version of the text will be evaluated. Subsequently, the two reviewers will examine the studies in full to verify the fulfilment of the inclusion criteria. Disagreement situations between reviewers will be resolved through discussion with a third reviewer. Articles that do not meet the objectives of the studies or that do not deal with information relevant to the topic will be excluded. The included studies will be imported into the EndNoteX9 web library database and the final results of the review will be presented in the form of a flow diagram according to the checklist of Preferred Items for Reports for Systematic Reviews and Meta- analyses (PRISMA-ScR).
Data extraction
Data will be extracted from articles that meet the inclusion criteria from a data extraction template form developed by the reviewers. This tool includes the following elements: publication data (year, authors and country of publication); type of publication (editorial, experts opinion, research article, etc); study or manuscript objectives or main topic; methodological characteristics if it's the case (characteristics of the study population); main results or main added contribution or clinical implications (measurement of outcomes and main findings or contributions); inserted context (location of care and relevant cultural factors); dissemination approach (pdf reports for download, leaflets, manuals, videos, etc.) and will initially be tested in ten studies, in order to adjust the information to be extracted and small adjustments can also be made throughout the process.
Presentation of data
Tables accompanied by a narrative synthesis to address the scoping review objectives will be used to present the results.