Studies included in the qualitative synthesis
| Study characteristics | Participant characteristics | |||||
| Author and year | Study location | Inclusion criteria | Participants included (IG/CG) | Women % | Age (year) Mean (SD) | BMI (kg/m2) Mean (SD) |
| Armagan et al 34 2015 | Eskisehir, Turkey | With OA (ACR criteria) | 30/40 | 68% | 56 (0.6) | 30.9 (0.2) |
| Dincer et al 32 2016 | Istanbul, Turkey | With OA (ACR criteria) | 19/16 | 80% | 51 (2.4) | 28.6 (0.8) |
| Henriksen et al 35 2014 | Copenhagen, Denmark | With OA (osteophytes and/or joint space narrowing assessed by a radiologist) | 59/63 | – | 64 (0.8) | 37.2 (0.7) |
| Hunter et al 33 35 2015 | North Carolina, USA | With OA (RKOA KL 2 or 3, BMI of 27 to 37 and sedentary (<30 min exercise/week in the past 6 months) | 36/33 | 72% | 66 (6) | 33.6 (3.7) |
| Landsmeer et al 36 2016 | Rotterdam, Holland | Risk of OA (overweight/obese with no clinical knee OA according to ACR criteria) | 87/87 | 100% | 56 (3.2) | 32.3 (4.2) |
| Multanen et al 37 2014 and Koli et al 40 2015 | Jyväskyla, Finland | With OA (symptomatic and RKOA KL 1 or 2) | 40/40 | 100% | 58 (4.2) | 26.9 |
| Munukka et al 38 2016 | Jyväskyla,Finland | With OA (symptomatic and RKOA KL 1 or 2) | 43/44 | 100% | 64 (2) | 27 (0.3) |
| Ochiai et al 39 2014 | Chiba, Japan | With OA (RKOA KL 1, 2, 3) | 9/11 | 100% | 59 (0.7) | 22.7 (1) |
| Roos and Dahlberg22 2005 | Malmö,Sweden | Risk of OA (patients having had meniscectomy) | 22/23 | 33% | 46 (3.3) | 26.6 (3.2) |
ACR, American College of Rheumatology48; BMI, body mass index; CG, control group; IG, intervention group; KL, Kellgren-Lawrence scale; OA, osteoarthritis; P, patella; RKOA, radiographic knee osteoarthritis.