Table 5.

GRADE assessment

Outcomes	№ of participants (studies) Follow-up	Certainty of the evidence (GRADE)
DEXA assessed body composition (body composition) assessed with DEXA follow-up: range 2 months to 12 months	170 (3 RCTs)	⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderatea,b,c,d
Inflammatory response RCTs assessed with inflammatory marker follow-up: range 8 weeks to 26 weeks	339 (9 RCTs)	⨁⨁◯◯ Lowb,c,e
Muscle thickness measurement (MT) assessed with manual thickness measurement follow-up: mean 8 weeks	19 (1 RCT)	⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderateb,d,f
Inflammatory response and observational studies assessed with inflammatory markers	130 (5 observational studies)	⨁⨁◯◯ Lowb,c,f

^aThe types of exercise performed to assess changes in BMD differed significantly between studies. Only 1 study (Cronin et al.) used DEXA to determine body fat and lean muscle mass composition

^bDue to the nature of the intervention, patients and investigators could not be blinded

^cSignificant differences between the types of exercise carried and IBD patients are evident and included, respectively

^dConcern regarding single operator and the external validity

^eNot all data has been analysed for inflammatory outcomes

^fA control arm is not included