Table 1.
General characteristics of the included studies (N = 13).
| Population | References a | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All (N = 13) |
Metabolic Syndrome (n = 7) | At Risk (n = 6) | |||
| Study design | Randomised controlled trials | 7 | 5 | 2 | [16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25] |
| Pre–post | 5 | 2 | 3 | [26,27,28,29,30,31,32] | |
| Quasi-experiment | 1 | 0 | 1 | [33] | |
| Location | United States | 5 | 2 | 3 | [17,18,26,29,32] |
| Malaysia | 2 | 2 | 0 | [21,22,27,28] | |
| Italy | 1 | 1 | 0 | [16] | |
| Australia | 1 | 1 | 0 | [19,20] | |
| Taiwan | 1 | 1 | 0 | [23] | |
| Japan | 1 | 0 | 1 | [24] | |
| Thailand | 1 | 0 | 1 | [3] | |
| Kenya | 1 | 0 | 1 | [25] | |
| Population | Adults | 7 | 4 | 3 | [16,18,24,26,28,30,33] |
| Adults with other health issues | 3 | 0 | 3 | [25,29,31,32] | |
| Obese adults | 2 | 2 | 0 | [19,20,23] | |
| Older adults | 1 | 1 | 0 | [21,22] | |
| Metabolic Syndrome Criteria |
NCEP ATP III | 4 | 4 | n/a | [16,21,23,26] |
| IDF | 2 | 2 | n/a | [17,20] | |
| Harmonised | 1 | 1 | n/a | [27,28] | |
n/a = not applicable; a the count may not be reflected by the number of references, as each study can be represented by more than one article.