Table 2. Characteristics of trials included in the meta-analysis.

Authors	AAS (N°)	Controls (N°)	Study area	Population type	Type of controls	Type of AAS	Follow-up (wk)	Mean age (y)
Aakvaag and Stromme, 1974 [9]a	10	11	Norway	Normal subjects	Normal subjects	Mesterolone	8
Strauss et al, 1983 [10]	20	7	USA	Bodybuilders	Bodybuilders	Mixed		27.7
Alén et al, 1985 [11]	5	6	Finland	Not specified athletes	Not specified athletes	Mixed	26	26.3
Yesalis et al, 1988 [12]	15	-	USA	Weightlifters	-	Mixed	-	27
Knuth et al, 1989 [13]	19	10	Germany	Bodybuilders	Bodybuilders	Mixed	-	26.7
Moss et al, 1993 [14]	15	-	USA	Amateur body building athletes	-	Mixed	-	25.2
Evans, 1997 [15]	100	-	UK	Bodybuilders	-	Mixed	-	From 16 up to >40
Korkia and Stimson, 1997 [16]	97	-	UK	Amateur athletes	-	Mixed	-	27.3
Torres-Calleja et al, 2001 [17]	15	15	Mexico	Bodybuilders	Bodybuilders	Mixed	8.7	26.3
Fudala et al, 2003 [18]	88	-	USA	Not specified athletes	-	Mixed	-	18–59
Perry et al, 2005 [19]	207	-	USA	Bodybuilder and other athletes	-	Mixed	-	27.2
Taher et al, 2008 [20]	15	15	Iran	Bodybuilders	Healthy sedentary	Mixed	-	-
Ip et al, 2010 [21]	506	-	USA	Mixed population: recreational exercisers, competitive bodybuilders, competitive weightlifters, competitive athletes	Mixed population: recreational exercisers, competitive bodybuilders, competitive weightlifters, competitive athletes	Mixed	260	29.3
Al-Janabi et al, 2011 [22]	15	15	Iraq	Bodybuilders	Bodybuilders	Mixed	-	15–28
Coward et al, 2013 [23]	80	-	USA	Bodybuilders	Bodybuilders	Mixed	-	40.4
Razavi et al, 2014 [24]	72	-	Iran	Not specified abusers	-	Mixed	From <6 months up to >12 years	25.5
Rasmussen et al, 2016 [25], 2017 [26], 2018 [27]	37	30	Denmark	Not specified abusers	Healthy volunteers	Mixed	142.3	31.4
Baggish et al, 2017 [28]	86	54	USA	Weightlifters	Weightlifters	Mixed	384	42
Bordin et al, 2017 [29]	20	20	Brazil	Soccer and body builder professional athletes	Non abuser professional athletes	Mixed		21–27
Barbosa Neto et al, 2018 [30]	15	15	Brazil	Bodybuilders	Healthy volunteers	Mixed	197.6
Horwitz et al, 2019 [31]	545	-	Denmark	Tested positive for AAS in Danish Fitness centres	-	Mixed	-	26.2
Smit and de Ronde, 2018 [32]	180	-	Netherlands	Not specified abusers	-	Mixed	-	34
Souza et al, 2019 [33]	20	10	Brazil	Not specified abusers	Healthy sedentary subjects	Mixed	104	29
Börjesson et al, 2020 [34]	16	5	Sweden	Mixed athletes	Past AAS users	Mixed	208	33

UK: United Kingdom, USA: United States of America, AAS: anabolic androgenic steroids.

^aRandomized controlled trial.