Table 1.

Participant demographics of included studies

Study number	Author	Study design	Mean age	Sex (% female)	Mean BMI	Biopsy-proven NAFLD in total (n)	Biopsy-proven NAFLD in exercise group (n)
1	Hickman et al. [16]	RCT	48	38	34	21	9
2	Eckard et al. [17]	RCT	50	39	35	56	9
3	Naimimohasses et al. [18]	NRCT	58	60	35	50	16
4	O’Gorman et al. [19]	NRCT*	60	71	36	24	16
5	Rezende et al. [22]	RCT	55	100	33	40	19
6	Stine et al. [23]	RCT	50	61	35	28	18
7	Houghton et al. [24]	RCT	54	n.r.	33	24	12
8	Kistler et al. [20]	Cross-sectional	48	63	n.r.	813	n.a.
9	Lahelma et al. [21]	Cross-sectional	51	65	40	100	n.a.

BMI, body mass index; NAFLD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; RCT, randomized controlled trial; NRCT, non-randomized controlled trial; n.r., not reported; n.a., not applicable.

^*Non-randomized controlled trial design for non-invasive test endpoints; uncontrolled trial design for histological endpoints.