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. 2019 May 8;24(2):103–117. doi: 10.1016/j.bjpt.2019.04.004

Table 1.

Summary of the characteristics of the 38 included systematic reviews.

Total AMSTAR rating
High Moderate Low Critically Low
Number of reviews (%) 38 3 (8) 1 (2) 6 (16) 28 (74)



Location, n (%)
 North America 4 (11) 1 (25) 1 (25) 0 (0) 2 (50)
 South America 4 (11) 1 (25) 0 (0) 0 (0) 3 (75)
 Europe 14 (37) 1 (7) 0 (0) 3 (21) 10 (71)
 Asia 4 (11) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 4 (100)
 Oceania 12 (32) 0 (0) 0 (0) 3 (25) 9 (75)



Impact factor of the journal, mean (SD) 2.3 (1.7) 5.9 (0.2) 2.8 3.2 (1.5) 1.7 (1.2)
Cochrane review, n (%) 5 (13) 3 (60) 1 (20) 1 (20) 0 (0)
Funding, n (%) 10 (26) 1 (10) 0 (0) 2 (20) 7 (70)
Protocol published, n (%) 8 (21) 3 (38) 1 (12) 3 (38) 1 (12)
Number of included trials in the review, median (IQR) 10 (6–15) 12 (11–19) 61 11 (6–17) 9 (5–14)
Total sample size, median (IQR) 813 (502–1585) 1080 (795–2742) 6390 966 (493–1586) 777 (479–1277)



Type of exercise therapy, n (%)
 General exercise 13 (34) 0 (0) 1 (8) 2 (15) 10 (77)
 Motor control 7 (18) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (29) 5 (71)
 Pilates 7 (18) 1 (14) 0 (0) 0 (0) 6 (86)
 McKenzie 5 (13) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 (20) 4 (80)
 Yoga 3 (8) 1 (33) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (67)
 Aerobic 3 (8) 1 (33) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (67)
 Graded activity 2 (5) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 (50) 1 (50)

IQR, Interquartile range.