Table 1.
Summary of the characteristics of the included studies. Citations of studies that reported results on domains are listed after the domain
| Methods | Number of studies (%) |
| RCT with parallel group design [11–16, 23–25, 31, 32, 34–42] | 20 (95%) |
| RCT with cross over design [33] | 1 (5%) |
| Setting | Number of studies (%) |
| Europe [12, 13, 23, 24, 31, 32, 35, 38] | 8 (38%) |
| Australia and New Zealand [14, 16, 25, 37] | 4 (19%) |
| Asia [15, 36, 40, 41] | 4 (19%) |
| North America [11, 33, 34, 39, 42] | 5 (24%) |
| Participant diagnoses | Number of studies (%) |
| Osteoarthritis [23] | 1 (5%) |
| COPD [12, 31, 36] | 3 (14%) |
| Cardiac patients [16, 40] | 2 (10%) |
| None [11, 13–15, 24, 25, 32–35, 37–39, 41, 42] | 15 (71%) |
| Participant characteristics | Median (range) |
| Median age in studies (k = 21) | 70.5 (65 to 81.5) |
| Median body mass index in studies [11, 12, 14, 15, 23, 25, 31, 35, 36, 39, 40, 42] | 27.9 (21.1 to 31.82) |
| Median percentage of male participants in studies [11–16, 23–25, 31, 33–36, 38–42] | 42 (0 to 88) |
| Median percentage of married participants [13, 16, 24, 25, 32, 35, 39] | 61.4 (39 to 80.5) |
| Median baseline daily step count [11–13, 15, 23, 31, 33–35, 39, 41] | 5268 (2420 to 7697) |
| Intervention | Median (range) |
| Length median weeks (k = 21) | 12 (4 to 52) |
| Physical activity monitor | Number of studies (%) |
| Accelerometer [12, 14, 32, 36, 41] | 5 (24%) |
| Pedometer [11, 13, 15, 16, 23–25, 31, 33–35, 37–40, 42] | 16 (76%) |
| Frequency of feedback | Number of studies (%) |
| Daily [11–13, 15, 16, 23–25, 32, 33, 35, 37–42] | 17 (81%) |
| Weekly [14, 31, 33] | 3 (14%) |
| Monthly [36] | 1 (5%) |
| Outcomes | Number of studies (%) |
| Reported results on physical activity [11–16, 23–25, 31–36, 38–42] | 20 (95%) |
| Reported results on sedentary time [13] | 1 (5%) |
| Reported results on MVPA time [14, 24, 25, 31, 35, 41, 42] | 7 (33%) |
| Reported results on physical capacity [24, 36, 37, 41] | 4 (19%) |
| Reported results on health-related quality of life [13, 24, 25, 31, 36] | 5 (24%) |
| Reported results on body mass index [25, 36] | 3 (14%) |
| Reported results on adverse events [13, 14, 16, 24, 31, 32, 35–37, 40] | 10 (48%) |
RCT Randomized Controlled Trial, COPD Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, MVPA Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity, k number of studies. The reported median of mean values are unweighted in relation to study size or reporting precision