title: The role of the family doctor in the management of adults who are obese: a scoping review protocol.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The role of family doctors in the management of obesity in primary care will become increasingly important as more of the adult population become overweight or obese. Having a solid understanding of the family doctor's role as a sole practitioner is important for supporting practitioners in providing patient care and for informing future research.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this paper is to describe a protocol for a scoping review that aims to examine and map the current research base for the role of the family doctor in managing adults who are overweight or obese.
  
  
  METHODS
  This scoping review is based on the methodology as described by the Joanna Briggs Institute which involves final consultation with stakeholders. Two reviewers (ES, NE) will be responsible for the iterative development of a search strategy based on the basic initial search terms obesity, doctor and primary care. Black and grey literature will be searched to elucidate any manuscripts involving the family doctor in the management of adults who are overweight or obese. A customised data extraction tool will be used to collect relevant items from each manuscript.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data extraction will expose the role family doctors are playing in obesity management in all stages of research including recruitment, intervention or as a control group. By looking at a broad scope of manuscripts we will discover the family doctor's role as portrayed in research, in international guidelines and by peak bodies. We will also determine if there are any gaps in the research base.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This protocol describes a scoping review that will illustrate the supporting international research for the role family doctors are playing in the management of adults who are overweight or obese. Scoping of the international literature will then be translated for Australian primary care.
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of General Practice, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Elizabeth Ann
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Sturgiss
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of General Practice, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Elmitt
authors.affiliation: Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands ; Primary Health Care Research, Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, Research School of Population Health, ANU College of Medicine, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: van Weel
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of General Practice, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Haesler
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH), Research School of Population Health, ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Ginny
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sargent
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of General Practice, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, Centre for Obesity Management and Prevention Research Excellence in Primary Health Care (COMPaRE-PHC), UNSW, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of General Practice, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Kirsty
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Douglas
keywords: Adults; Family doctor; General practitioner; Obesity; Overweight; Primary care; Primary care physician