Table 1. Characteristics of included studies.

N/A = not available; BP = blood pressure

Study	Year	Design	Setting	Sample size	Gender	Age	Follow-up
Zou et al. [13]	2017	Pilot randomized controlled trial	Community, Canada	60	31 women, 29 men	Mean age: 62.0 years	8 weeks
Sarkkinen et al. [14]	2011	Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study	Finland	45	22 women, 23 men	Mean age: 55 years	8 weeks
Zhao et al. [15]	2014	Randomized controlled trial	Tibetan Autonomous Region, China	282	166 women, 116 men	Mean age: 63.1 years	3 months
Hansen et al. [16]	2012	Randomized controlled trial	Denmark	88	39 women	Mean age: 52.0 years	12 weeks
Badrov et al. [17]	2013	Quasi-experimental	University laboratory	24 hypertensives	11 females	Mean age: 64 years	2 months
Taylor et al. [18]	2003	Randomized controlled trial	University laboratory	17 hypertensives	10 males, 7 females	Mean age: 67.5 years	6 months
Edwards et al. [19]	2011	Randomized controlled trial	University laboratory	52 sedentary participants with elevated BP	25 males, 27 females	18–70	6 months
Stewart et al. [20]	2005	Randomized controlled trial	Community setting	51 exercisers, 53 controls	25 males, 26 females in exercisers; 26 males, 27 females in controls	Mean age: 63.6 years	6 months
Elmer et al. [21]	2006	Randomized controlled trial	Clinical centers	810 adult volunteers with pre-hypertension or stage 1 hypertension	N/A	N/A	18 months
Burke et al. [22]	2005	Randomized controlled trial	Research studies unit	241 overweight hypertensive patients	N/A	N/A	1 year