Article Text
Abstract
Exercise is effective for prevention and management of acute and chronic health conditions. However, trial descriptions of exercise interventions are often suboptimal, leaving readers unclear about the content of effective programmes. To address this, the 16-item internationally endorsed Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template (CERT) was developed. The aim is to present the final template and provide an Explanation and Elaboration Statement to operationalise the CERT. Development of the CERT was based on the EQUATOR Network methodological framework for developing reporting guidelines. We used a modified Delphi technique to gain consensus of international exercise experts and conducted 3 sequential rounds of anonymous online questionnaires and a Delphi workshop. The 16-item CERT is the minimum data set considered necessary to report exercise interventions. The contents may be included in online supplementary material, published as a protocol or located on websites and other electronic repositories. The Explanation and Elaboration Statement is intended to enhance the use, understanding and dissemination of the CERT and presents the meaning and rationale for each item, together with examples of good reporting. The CERT is designed specifically for the reporting of exercise programmes across all evaluative study designs for exercise research. The CERT can be used by authors to structure intervention reports, by reviewers and editors to assess completeness of exercise descriptions and by readers to facilitate the use of the published information. The CERT has the potential to increase clinical uptake of effective exercise programmes, enable research replication, reduce research waste and improve patient outcomes.
- Implementation
- Intervention effectiveness
- Knowledge translation
- Exercise
- Evidence based
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Footnotes
Contributors SCS and RB conceived the study and all authors contributed to the design and content of the study. SCS drafted the manuscript and all authors provided critical input. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding This research project was funded by the 2014 Arthritis Australia Philip Benjamin Grant, number: 2014GIA03 and the J Mason and H S Williams Memorial Foundation (the Mason Foundation), grant number: MAS2015F037. RB is funded by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellowship.
Competing interests MU is a director and shareholder of Clinvivo a company providing Smartphone apps for health services research.
Ethics approval Cabrini Institute Ethics Committee: HREC 02-07-04-14.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement The authors agree to share unpublished data such as online survey results.