8. Interpretation of results by original review authors.

Review	Review authors' conclusions	Overview authors' assessment of conclusions
Bartels 2007	"Aquatic exercise has some short‐term beneficial effects on the condition of OA patients with hip or knee OA or both. The controlled and randomised studies in this area are still too few to give further recommendations on how to use this therapy... No long‐term effects have been found."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. No mention of quality/risk of bias in conclusions, though found to be high quality in results section.
Bidonde 2014	"Low to moderate quality evidence relative to control suggests that aquatic training is beneficial for improving wellness, symptoms, and fitness in adults with fibromyalgia. Very low to low quality evidence suggests that there are benefits of aquatic and land‐based exercise, except in muscle strength (very low quality evidence favoring land). No serious adverse effects were reported."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data.
Boldt 2014	"Evidence is insufficient to suggest that non‐pharmacological treatments are effective in reducing chronic pain in people living with SCI. The benefits and harms of commonly used non‐pharmacological pain treatments should be investigated in randomised controlled trials with adequate sample size and study methodology"	Appropriate conclusions based on available data.
Brown 2010	"There is a lack of available evidence to support the use of exercise in the alleviation of symptoms associated with dysmenorrhoea. The limited evidence implies that there are no adverse effects associated with exercise."	Review authors should not have commented on lack of adverse events as this was not reported in the included study. The comment on lack of adverse events contravened present Cochrane guidance.
Busch 2007	"There is moderate quality evidence that short‐term aerobic training (at the intensity recommended for increases in cardiorespiratory fitness) produces important benefits in people with FM in global outcome measures, physical function, and possibly pain and tender points. There is limited evidence that strength training improves a number of outcomes including pain, global wellbeing, physical function, tender points and depression. There is insufficient evidence regarding the effects of flexibility exercise. Adherence to many of the aerobic exercise interventions described in the included studies was poor."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data.
Busch 2013	"We have found evidence in outcomes representing wellness, symptoms, and physical fitness favoring resistance training over usual treatment and over flexibility exercise, and favoring aerobic training over resistance training. Despite large effect sizes for many outcomes, the evidence has been decreased to low quality based on small sample sizes, small number of randomized clinical trials (RCTs), and the problems with description of study methods in some of the included studies."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data.
Cramp 2013	"There is some evidence that physical activity interventions ... may help to reduce fatigue in RA. However, the optimal parameters and components of these interventions are not yet established."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. However, no mention of quality/risk of bias of studies in conclusion despite low/unclear quality score in results and discussion sections. No conclusions about effect on pain (insufficient data).
Fransen 2014	"There is currently high‐level evidence that land‐based exercise will reduce hip pain, and improve physical function, among people with symptomatic hip osteoarthritis."	Evidence was good quality though sample sizes were often small (i.e. it is debatable if this was high level evidence as claimed by authors). Agree that results demonstrate small but significant benefit from intervention.
Fransen 2015	"High‐quality evidence suggests that land‐based therapeutic exercise provides benefit in terms of reduced knee pain and quality of life and moderate‐quality evidence of improved physical function among people with knee OA… Despite the lack of blinding we did not downgrade the quality of evidence for risk of performance or detection bias."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. May have been generous with quality assessment but this was stated in conclusions for transparency.
Gross 2015a	"…there is still no high quality evidence and uncertainty about the effectiveness of exercise for neck pain… Moderate quality evidence supports the use specific strengthening exercises as a part of routine practice … Moderate quality evidence supports the use of strengthening exercises, combined with endurance or stretching exercises may also yield similar beneficial results. However, low quality evidence notes when only stretching or only endurance type exercises … there may be minimal beneficial effects for both neck pain and function."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data.
Han 2004	"Tai chi appears to have no detrimental effects on the disease activity of RA in terms of swollen/tender joints and activities of daily living…tai chi appears to be safe, since only 1 participant out of 121 withdrew due to adverse effects and withdrawals were greater in the control groups than the tai chi groups."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. However, no mention of quality/risk of bias in conclusion despite very low quality score in results section.
Hayden 2005	"Evidence from randomized controlled trials demonstrates that exercise therapy is effective at reducing pain and functional limitations in the treatment of chronic low‐back pain, though cautious interpretation is required due to limitations in this literature."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. However, no mention of quality/risk of bias of studies in conclusion despite low quality score in results and discussion sections.
Hurkmans 2009	"Short‐term, land‐based dynamic exercise programs have a positive effect on aerobic capacity (aerobic capacity training whether or not combined with muscle strength training) and muscle strength (aerobic capacity training combined with muscle strength training) immediately after the intervention, but not after a follow‐up period. Short‐term, water‐based dynamic exercise programs have a positive effect on functional ability and aerobic capacity directly after the intervention but it is unknown whether these effects are maintained after follow‐up. Long‐term, land‐based dynamic exercise programs (aerobic capacity and muscle strength training) have a positive effect on functional ability, aerobic capacity, and muscle strength immediately after the intervention but it is unknown whether these effects are maintained after follow‐up... Based on the evidence, aerobic capacity training combined with muscle strength training is recommended for routine practice in patients with RA."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. However, no mention of quality/risk of bias of studies in conclusion. No conclusions regarding pain severity.
Koopman 2015	"Data from two single trials suggested that muscle strengthening of thumb muscles (very low‐quality evidence) ... are safe and beneficial for improving muscle strength ... with unknown effects on activity limitations." "We found evidence varying from very low quality to high quality that ... rehabilitation in a warm or cold climate are not beneficial in PPS." "Due to a lack of good‐quality data and randomised studies, it was impossible to draw definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of interventions in people with PPS."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data.
Lane 2014	"… Exercise therapy should play an important part in the care of selected patients with intermittent claudication, to improve walking times and distances. Effects were demonstrated following three months of supervised exercise although some programmes lasted over one year."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. However, no mention of quality/risk of bias of studies in conclusion. No conclusions regarding pain severity.
Lauret 2014	"There was no clear evidence of differences between supervised walking exercise and alternative exercise modes in improving the maximum and pain‐free walking distance of patients with intermittent claudication…. The results indicate that alternative exercise modes may be useful when supervised walking exercise is not an option for the patient."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. However, no mention of quality/risk of bias of studies in conclusion (in discussion).
Regnaux 2015	"We found very low‐ to low‐quality evidence for no important clinical benefit of high‐intensity compared to low‐intensity exercise programs in improving pain and physical function in the short term.... The included studies did not provide any justification for the levels of intensity of exercise programs. No authors reported evidence for the minimal and maximal intensity that could be delivered."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. This overview has only used one study of the six included as it alone included a control group, for which we could not extract data as the control comparison was not used in the analysis by the review authors.
Saragiotto 2016	"There is very low to moderate quality evidence that MCE has a clinically important effect compared with a minimal intervention for chronic low back pain... As MCE appears to be a safe form of exercise and none of the other types of exercise stands out, the choice of exercise for chronic low back pain should depend on patient or therapist preferences, therapist training, costs and safety."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data.
Silva 2010	"We were not able to provide any evidence to support the application of balance exercises (proprioceptive training) alone in patients with RA."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data (no included studies).
van der Heijden 2015	"This review has found very low quality but consistent evidence that exercise therapy for patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) may result in clinically important reduction in pain and improvement in functional ability."	No subgroup analysis to differentiate between acute, subacute, and chronic pain made it difficult to extract appropriate data for this review.
Yamato 2015	"No definite conclusions or recommendations can be made as we did not find any high quality evidence for any of the treatment comparisons, outcomes or follow‐up periods investigated. However, there is low to moderate quality evidence that Pilates is more effective than minimal intervention in the short and intermediate term as the benefits were consistent for pain intensity and disability, with most of the effect sizes being considered medium."	Appropriate conclusions based on available data. There was no subgroup analysis to differentiate between acute, subacute, and chronic pain made it difficult to extract appropriate data for this review (one included study had subacute back pain (> 6 weeks), all others were chronic back pain (> 12 weeks)) but results are presented altogether as chronic pain.

FM: fibromyalgia; MCE: motor control exercise; OA: osteoarthritis; PPS: postpolio syndrome; RA: rheumatoid arthritis; SCI: spinal cord injury.