Table 3.

Descriptive characteristics of included studies by year of publication.

Source no.	Author	Year	Country	Sample	Ethnicity	Data collection	Topics of interest	Aim
1	Bostock [54]	2000	United Kingdom	N = 30 mothers on social security benefits	White (60%), black, Pakistani, Indian, and Gujarati Muslim	Semistructured interviews	Walking, physical fatigue, and psychosocial stress	To contend that “no access to a car” is not only an indicator of low socioeconomic status but of walking as a mode of transport
2	Burton et al. [55].	2003	Australia	N = 60 men and women between 18–60 years from three socioeconomic groups (high, middle, and low)	Ethnicity not stated (predominant white assumed)	Semistructured interviews	Recreational physical activity	To explore how influences on recreational physical activity were patterned by socioeconomic position
3	Ball et al. [56]	2006	Australia	N = 56 women aged 18–65 years (19 from high, 19 from middle, and 18 from low SES area)	Ethnicity not stated (predominant white assumed)	Semistructured interviews	Physical activity	To investigate why women of low socioeconomic status are less physically active than women of higher SES
4	Bove and Olson [57]	2006	United States	N = 28 mothers at least 18 years and one child younger than 12 years. Annual household income less than 200% of the federal poverty level	Ethnicity not stated (predominant white assumed)	In-depth interviews	Physical activity and eating patterns	To understand overweight and obesity from the perspective of low-income mothers living in rural New York state, focusing in particular on challenges to maintaining a healthy weight that might be unique to rural poverty
5	Yen et al. [58]	2006	United States	N = 52 women aged 21 to 66 years, at least one child under 18 living at home. From three different neighbourhoods (lower, moderate, and higher income)	Majority Hispanic with non-Hispanic white minority	8 Focus group discussions (FGDs)	Diet, physical activity, and smoking	To investigate women's perceptions of neighbourhood resources and hazards associated with poor diet, physical inactivity, and cigarette smoking
6	Griffin et al. [59]	2007	United States	N = 27 adults (70% women and 30% men) living in community where 73% of adult residents have annual income less than $25,000	African Americans	3 FGDs	Physical activity	To increase understanding of how safety and environmental factors influence physical activity among African American residents about how to best design physical activity interventions for their neighbourhood
7	Hartweg and Isabelli-García [60]	2007	United States	N = 43 women aged 25 to 61 with family incomes less than 185% of the poverty level	Immigrants from Mexico	7 FGDs	General health, nutrition, and physical activity	To investigate health perceptions of first- and second-generation, low-income, Spanish-speaking women from Mexico and Central America to learn their views of health and also to identify any differences between subcultures
8	Kamphuis et al. [61]	2007	Netherlands	N = 38 men and women aged 29–81 years selected based on their neighbourhood's deprivation level and highest educational attainment	Ethnicity not stated (predominant white assumed)	FGDs	Physical activity, fruit, and vegetable consumption	To explore how perceptions of environmental influences on health behaviour pattern across socioeconomic groups in Netherlands
9	Chang et al. [62]	2008	United States	N = 80 mothers, 18 to 35 years of age, at least one child enrolled in program providing nutrition consultation for low-income women and children	Non-Hispanic, black or non-Hispanic white	8 FGDs	Healthy eating and physical activity	To identify motivators and barriers to healthful eating and physical activity among low-income overweight and obese non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white mothers
10	Bragg et al. [63]	2009	United States	N = 50 men and women aged 18–89 years with family income less than $40,000 and N = 41 adolescents	African American, Hispanic, non-Hispanic white	12 FGDs	Physical activity	To identify motivators and barriers relative to engagement in physical activity as reported by culturally diverse low-income adolescents and adults
11	Steenhuis et al. [64]	2009	Netherlands	N = 27 men and women with lower socioeconomic status using education level as an indicator	Dutch	In-depth interviews	Physical activity and participation in sports activities	To investigate the importance of economic restraints for taking part in sports activities as well as perceptions of low-income people toward different pricing interventions
12	Withall et al. [65]	2009	United Kingdom	N = 27 parents aged 16 to 54 years (1 man and 26 women), at least one child under 11 years and living in an economically disadvantaged area	White	5 FGDs	Diet, physical activity, and obesity	To examine reported barriers to consuming a healthy diet and engaging in regular physical activity among low-income families with existing issues of overweight or obesity
13	Kaiser and Baumann [66]	2010	United States	N = 20 men and women aged 18 years or over with annual household income less than 200% of Federal Poverty Guidelines for reported household size	Latino and non-Latino	4 FGDs	Physical activity and healthy diet	To describe the perspectives of low-income adults in 2 rural Wisconsin counties on the factors that influence physical activity and healthy eating
14	Greaney et al. [67]	2012	United States	N = 35 adults aged 18–45 years (20 women, 15 men). Majority report household income of less than $20,000 and not having graduated from high school	Immigrants from South America, Central America, Mexico, or the Caribbean	4 FGDs	Diet and physical activity	To explore how migration influenced physical activity and dietary behaviours among Latino immigrants
15	Hartweg et al. [68]	2012	United States	N = 30 women approximately, aged 18–64 years with family income less than 185% of United States poverty level	Immigrants from Mexico	5 FGDs	Physical activity	To elicit recent Mexican immigrant women's perceptions of “being physically active” and to describe how living in United States has influenced their perceptions of being physically active
16	Mansfield et al. [69]	2012	Canada	N = 42 mothers (median age 35.7 years, standard deviation 7.7 years) self-identified as SED using MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, have at least one child ≤14 years of age still living at home	Multiethnic	6 FGDs	Physical activity	To identify the individual, social, and environmental factors influencing utilitarian and leisure time physical activities of multiethnic socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers
17	Mohamed et al. [70]	2014	United States	N = 20, Somali men living in Rochester, Minnesota. Age ranged from 24 to 65	Somali men	3 FGDs and 3 in-depth interviews	Physical activity	Determine perceptions of physical activity
18	Wieland et al. [71]	2015	United States	N = 127 (adults 54 and adolescents 73), immigrants and refugees mean annual income varied from USD 14,862 to 24,857	Immigrants and refugees of Cambodian, Mexican, Somali, and Sudanese background	16 FGDs	Physical activity	Determine reasons for low level of PA among the immigrants and refugees
19	Gray et al. [72]	2016	United Kingdom	N = 28 among older adults with low/high SES, using self-determination theory and self-efficacy theory framework	Older adults with low/high SES	4 FGDs	Physical activity	Explore motives and barriers to physical activity among older adults of differing socioeconomic status