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. 2023 Aug 31;12:48. doi: 10.1186/s13741-023-00338-8

Table 2.

Study, surgery, and intervention characteristics of 70 randomized trials of prehabilitation

Study characteristics
Year of publication, n (%) 70 100%
  1995 1 1%
  2004 1 1%
  2006 2 3%
  2009 2 3%
  2010 2 3%
  2011 1 1%
  2012 2 3%
  2013 3 4%
  2014 6 9%
  2015 2 3%
  2016 4 6%
  2017 5 7%
  2018 7 10%
  2019 3 4%
  2020 9 13%
  2021 13 19%
  2022 7 10%
Origin of studies, n (%) 70 100%
  Europe 32 46%
  North America 25 36%
  Asia 11 16%
  Australia 1 1%
  South America 1 1%
Type of prehabilitation program, n (%) 70 100%
  Exercise only 40 57%
  Nutrition only 2 3%
  Functional 2 3%
  Cognitive training 3 4%
  Multimodal 23 33%
Population included, n (%) 70 100%
  Surgery, non-oncologic 30 43%
  Surgery, oncologic 32 46%
  Mixed oncologic and non-oncologic 8 11%
Surgery characteristics1, n (%)
Non-oncological surgery 38 100%
  Orthopedic 19 50%
  Heart 6 16%
  Spine 4 11%
  Colorectal 3 8%
  Lung 1 3%
  Hernia 1 3%
  Mixed non-oncologic surgeries 4 11%
Oncologic surgery 40 100%
  Colorectal 14 35%
  Lung 12 30%
  Urological 4 10%
  Esophageal 2 5%
  Hepatobiliary 1 3%
  Pancreatic 1 3%
  Mixed oncologic surgeries 6 15%
Sample size, n (%) 70 100%
  Reached 24 34%
  Not reached 31 44%
  Not calculated 15 21%
Number of patients per trial
  Min–max number 15–668
  Mean (SD) 89.8 (93.2)
  Median [IQR] 60.0 [34.0–110.0]
Primary outcome, n (%) 70 100%
  Performance based 25 36%
  Clinician reported 22 31%
  Patient reported 10 14%
  Observer reported 3 4%
  Biomarker 1 1%
  Mixed 5 7%
  Unclear/not specified 4 6%
Primary outcome significant, n (%) 70 100%
  Yes 45 64%
  No 25 36%
Baseline reporting of patient characteristics, n (%) 70 100%
  Malnutrition 8 11%
  Frailty 4 6%
  Sarcopenia 0 0%
Intervention characteristics
Location of prehabilitation delivery, n (%) 70 100%
  Home 20 29%
  Supervised 28 40%
  Tele-prehab 1 1%
  Combination 19 27%
  Not specified 2 3%
Nutrition intervention, n (%) 70 100%
  Yes 16 23%
  No 51 73%
  Usual care nutrition 3 4%
Psychological intervention, n (%) 70 100%
  Yes 13 19%
  No 57 81%
Duration of prehabilitation (weeks)
  Min–max 1–14
  Mean (SD) 4.7 (2.5)
  Median [IQR] 4.0 [3.0–6.0]
Total prehabilitation sessions
  Min–max 3–126
  Mean (SD) 18.8 (17.3)
  Median [IQR] 14.0 [11.2–20.8]
Guidelines cited N 100%
  CONSORT 17 24%
  CONSORT & TIDieR 1 1%
  CONSORT & CERT 1 1%
  CONSORT flow chart 12 17%

1Because 8 studies included both cancer and non-cancer patients, surgery characteristics overlap. Min Minimal value; Max Maxima value, SD Standard deviation, IQR Interquartile range, ns Not specified, CONSORT Consolidated Standards of Reporting of Trials, TIDieR Template for Intervention Description and Replication, CERT Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template