Study	Reason for exclusion
Atkinson 2004	Randomized clinical trial comparing 43.5 mg red clover‐derived isoflavones versus placebo in 177 women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Badeau 2007	56 postmenopausal women were treated with either isoflavone or placebo tablets for 3 months in a cross‐over design, separated by a 2‐month washout period. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Blakesmith 2003	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in 25 healthy premenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Cancellieri 2007	Multicentre, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled clinical investigation on 125 menopausal women randomly assigned to 2 groups treated for 6 months with placebo or 1 tablet daily of an herbal product containing 72 mg/dose of isoflavones of different plants origin and other plant extracts. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Chedraui 2008	Randomized controlled cross‐over clinical trial conducted in 60 postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Cheng 2007	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in 60 healthy postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Cianci 2012	120 women with a mean age of 54.8 ±  0.6 years were enrolled and randomized to treatment with isoflavones and berberine or calcium and vitamin D(3). It was excluded because 1) not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic, and 2) intervention was isoflavones and berberine
Colacurci 2005	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in 60 healthy postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Dent 2001	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone‐rich soy versus isoflavone‐poor soy in perimenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Fornaro 2006	54 healthy postmenopausal women were randomly allocated to 60 mg/d of both genistein and daidzein for 6 months (active group, n = 27) or no therapy (control group, n = 27). It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Gallagher 2004	A total of 65 women, with a mean age of 55 years and 7.5 years since menopause, were randomized to 1 of 3 groups; soy protein with 96 mg isoflavones/d, soy with 52 mg isoflavones/d, or soy without isoflavones (< 4 mg isoflavones/d). It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Garrido 2006	29 healthy postmenopausal women were invited to take part in a randomized study to receive either 100 mg/d isoflavone supplement (n = 15) or identical placebo capsules (n = 14). It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Gonzalez 2007	A randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, cross‐over study was conducted in 32 Caucasian, postmenopausal women with diet‐controlled type 2 diabetes. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Han 2002	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Hidalgo 2005	60 postmenopausal women aged > 40 years, non‐users of hormone therapy, with Kupperman index score 15, were randomized in a double‐blind method to receive either a commercially available red clover isoflavone supplement (80 mg/d) or placebo for 90 d. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Ho 2007	A double‐blind, randomized, placebo‐controlled trial was conducted in 203 postmenopausal Chinese women aged 48‐62 years. They were randomly assigned to receive daily doses of 500 mg calcium, and 0 mg isoflavones (placebo, n = 67), 40 mg isoflavones (n = 68) and 80 mg isoflavones (n = 68). It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Jiang 2008	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in 189 normal cholesterolaemic and hypercholesterolaemic perimenopausal women. It was excluded because lack of cholesterol data in hypercholesterolaemic women in the placebo group
Lee 2012	In this randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled trial, 51 subjects with a body mass index of 23 kg/m2 or greater and a waist‐to‐hip ratio of 0.90 or greater for men or 0.85 or greater for women were randomly assigned to take 9.9 g/d of either a placebo or doenjang for 12 weeks. It was excluded because 1) not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic, and 2) doenjang may contain isoflavones and soy protein
Liang 2007	It was excluded because the intervention was soy lecithin
Llaneza 2010	116 postmenopausal women with insulin resistance were randomly assigned to a group of Mediterranean diet and physical exercise (control group) or a group of Mediterranean diet, physical exercise and daily oral ingestion of 40 mg of soy isoflavones (soy isoflavones group). It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Marini 2010	Randomized clinical trial comparing genistein versus placebo in postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Nikander 2004	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in 56 non‐diabetic postmenopausal women with a history of breast cancer. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Oliveira 2012	In a prospective, randomized and single‐blinded clinical trial, we compared people with chronic hepatitis C who had casein as a supplement (n = 80) (control group), with people who consumed a soy supplement diet (n = 80) (intervention group). It was excluded because 1) not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic, and 2) the intervention was soy protein and isoflavones, but the control was placebo
Ozturk 2009	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in 22 postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Petri Nahas 2004	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in 50 postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Rios 2008	In this double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study, 47 postmenopausal women 47‐66 years of age received 40 mg of isoflavone (n = 25) or 40 mg of casein placebo (n = 22). It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Schult 2004	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavones versus placebo in 252 menopausal women aged 45‐60 years. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Swain 2002	Perimenopausal women (n = 69) were randomly assigned (double blind) to treatment: isoflavone‐rich soy‐protein isolate (n = 24), isoflavone‐poor soy‐protein isolate (n = 24) or whey protein (control; n = 21). Each subject consumed 40 g soy or whey protein daily for 24 weeks. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Terzic 2009	Randomized clinical trial comparing a red clover‐derived isoflavone versus placebo in 40 healthy postmenopausal women with a mean age of 56 years. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Törmälä 2006	30 postmenopausal women were treated in a randomized, placebo‐controlled, cross‐over trial with isoflavones or placebo for 3 months interrupted by a 2‐month washout period. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Uesugi 2003	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Villa 2009	A randomized placebo controlled study was conducted in 50 postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Wong 2012	Randomized controlled cross‐over clinical trial conducted in 41 participants (23 men, 18 women). It was excluded because the intervention duration was 4 weeks
Woo 2003	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo in postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic
Wu 2006a	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo, and isoflavone plus walking versus walking in 136 postmenopausal women at < 5 years after the onset of menopause. It was excluded because the mean daily dietary isoflavones intakes of participants in all groups at baseline and during the trial were greater than 37 mg/d, and not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic. This paper was also republished
Wu 2006b	Randomized clinical trial comparing isoflavone versus placebo, and isoflavone plus walking versus walking in 128 postmenopausal women at < 5 years after the onset of menopause. It was excluded because the mean daily dietary isoflavones intakes of participants in all groups at baseline and during the trial were greater than 37 mg/d, and not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic. This paper was also republished
Xiao 2003	It was excluded because the intervention duration was 8 weeks
Ye 2012	A randomized placebo‐controlled trial. 90 early postmenopausal Chinese women, aged 45‐60 years, were randomly assigned to 3 treatment groups (30 each) receiving daily doses of 0 (placebo), 84 and 126 mg of soy germ isoflavones. It was excluded because most of participants were not hypercholesterolaemic
Yildiz 2005	Randomized clinical trial comparing 40 mg of genistein versus placebo in postmenopausal women. It was excluded because not all participants were hypercholesterolaemic

d: day.