Table 3

Physical activity interventions moderator analyses

	Effect size descriptive statistics					Null test	Heterogeneity statistics
	k	d	SE	s²	95% CI	Z	Q	T²	I²
Random effects model†	24	0.35	0.05	0.002	(0.26 to 0.45)	7.13***	72.32†	0.030	68.20
Study characteristics‡
Study design							0.40
RCT	21	0.37	0.05	0.003	(0.26 to 0.47)	6.80***		0.03	70.03
Cluster RCT	3	0.27	0.14	0.021	(-0.01 to 0.55)	1.87		0.05	62.55
Study quality							0.00
Strong	4	0.36	0.13	0.002	(0.10 to 0.61)	2.75**		0.01	11.87
Moderate	20	0.35	0.05	0.003	(0.25 to 0.46)	6.51***		0.03	72.00
Measure							9.30**
Subjective	14	0.26	0.05	0.002	(0.17 to 0.35)	5.66***		0.01	48.41
Objective	10	0.51	0.07	0.005	(0.37 to 0.65)	7.33***		0.01	29.81
PA outcome							0.33
Primary	7	0.32	0.09	0.009	(0.14 to 0.50)	3.42***		0.03	63.97
Secondary	16	0.39	0.07	0.004	(0.26 to 0.51)	5.97***		0.04	68.91
Sample size							2.83
n≤150	13	0.46	0.08	0.006	(0.30 to 0.61)	5.76***		0.02	29.30
n≥151	11	0.29	0.06	0.003	(0.18 to 0.41)	4.96***		0.03	77.89
Participant characteristics‡
Mean age							0.20
≤44 years	9	0.39	0.10	0.009	(0.20 to 0.58)	4.09***		0.00	0.00
≥45 years	15	0.34	0.06	0.003	(0.23 to 0.45)	5.88***		0.04	77.95
Population							0.78
General	20	0.38	0.06	0.003	(0.27 to 0.49)	6.68***		0.04	71.28
Clinical	4	0.26	0.12	0.014	(0.03 to 0.49)	2.21*		0.02	47.50
Intervention characteristics‡
Contact frequency							14.11***
<1 weekly	14	0.22	0.05	0.002	(0.14 to 0.31)	4.98***		0.00	22.86
≥1 weekly	10	0.50	0.06	0.003	(0.39 to 0.62)	8.51***		0.02	47.60
Engagement							3.95
High	3	0.68	0.17	0.028	(0.35 to 1.01)	4.04***		0.18	74.46
Moderate	10	0.34	0.07	0.010	(0.20 to 0.48)	4.79***		0.03	63.95
Low	6	0.31	0.10	0.005	(0.11 to 0.51)	3.04**		0.00	0.00
Gender-tailored							12.08***
No	12	0.22	0.05	0.002	(0.12 to 0.31)	4.53***		0.00	21.27
Yes	12	0.47	0.06	0.003	(0.36 to 0.58)	8.55***		0.02	46.82
Duration							8.72**
≤12 weeks	13	0.46	0.06	0.003	(0.35 to 0.57)	8.03***		0.03	53.08
≥13 weeks	11	0.23	0.05	0.003	(0.12 to 0.33)	4.26***		0.00	25.01
Theory							8.28**
No	5	0.15	0.07	0.005	(0.01 to 0.30)	2.07*		0.00	0.01
Yes	19	0.40	0.05	0.002	(0.31 to 0.49)	8.84***		0.02	49.62
Behaviour change techniques							10.62***
≤3 techniques	16	0.24	0.05	0.002	(0.15 to 0.34)	5.32***		0.01	26.98
≥4 techniques	8	0.51	0.07	0.004	(0.38 to 0.63)	7.72***		0.03	59.22

*P≤0.05, **P≤0.01, ***P≤0.001.
†Q_w value used to determine heterogeneity.
‡Q_b value used to determine significant differences between moderators.
d, effect size (Cohen’s d); I², total variance explained by moderator(s); k, number of effect sizes; s², variance; SE, SE error; T², between study variance in random effects model; Z, test of the null hypothesis.