Classifying the types of evidence produced on the Academia da Cidade Program: a scoping review

The Academia da Cidade program (ACP), linked to the Health Secretariat of Recife, Pernambuco since 2002, is a component of health policy focused on Primary Care and aims to promote physical activities, healthy eating and health education. The study aimed to map the scientific production on the ACP. This is a mapping review study with the following steps: (1) clarifying the research question; (2) identifying relevant studies; (3) selecting studies; (4) mapping the studies; (5) summarizing and reporting the results. Searches were made in the Virtual Health Library, Pubmed, Scielo and LILACS databases. Were excluded articles that did not address PAC (n = 17), review articles (n = 2), and articles that analyzed other programs (n = 2) and 16 articles were excluded because they did not present the ACP as the focus of the analysis. Eight studies were identified on this theme. The study identified that most articles focus on types I and II of evidence and that only one article presented the theoretical contribution of policy science in its theoretical scope. We conclude that more research is needed to contribute with more reliable frameworks and methodologies, in line with the public policy analysis process.