Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Inclusion | Exclusion |
|---|---|
| Adults from the age of 19 | Youths and children up to and including 18 |
| Interventions where people walk as part of a defined walking group intervention | Studies that do not involve a walking group intervention, eg, they walk with a physiotherapist |
| Where the walking is group based, or where the walking is predominantly group based but participants may also walk on their own to supplement this | Participants walking only rarely in groups, or walking on their own, such as home-based or pedometer-based programmes with no group walking |
| Walking outdoors or walking predominantly outdoors but occasionally indoors (eg, inside tracks or shopping malls for weather reasons) | Walking indoors or predominantly indoors |
| Studies that compare group walking with group Nordic walking where group walking can be isolated as an intervention and the outcome directly related to group walking | Studies examining Nordic walking only |
| Studies with physiological, psychological or well-being outcomes such as blood profiles (eg, lipids, HbA1c), cardiovascular measures (eg, BP), psychological (eg, Beck depression inventory), well-being (eg, EQ5D) | Studies where the outcomes are solely physical activity such as step outcomes or logs of physical activity |
| Studies where the outcome can directly be related to the walking group intervention | Studies with a mixed intervention (eg, walking with calcium supplements or walking combined with a health education intervention) where the outcome cannot be isolated and directly attributed to group walking |
| Papers and documents written in English | Papers and documents not written in English |