Table 2 Summary of the characteristics of included studies (n = 17)

Design

 RCT with parallel group design [29, 31,32,33, 35, 37,38,39, 41, 42, 45]

11 (65)

 Non-randomized study of intervention [30, 34, 36, 40, 43, 44]

6 (35)

Participant diagnoses

 Cancer survivors [42, 45]

2 (12)

 Chronic heart failure [36]

1 (6)

 Chronic kidney disease [31]

1 (6)

 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease [33, 43]

2 (12)

 Kidney transplant recipients [41]

1 (6)

 Obesity [35, 38]

2 (12)

 Osteoarthritis [29, 39, 40]

3 (18)

 Mild Cognitive Impairment [44]

1 (6)

 Morbus Parkinson [30]

1 (6)

 More than one clinical indication [32, 34, 37]

3 (18)

Setting

 Community-dwelling [30, 32, 33, 36, 38,39,40,41,42, 44, 45]

11 (65)

 Outpatient [31, 34]

2 (12)

 Inpatient rehabilitation/hospital [29, 37, 43]

3 (18)

 No information [35]

1 (6)

Participant characteristics

Median (range)

 Median sample size

34 (10 to 270)

 Median age in studies

70.2 (64 to 81.5)

 Median body mass index in studies [29, 31, 33,34,35,36,37,38,39, 42, 43]

28.4 (21.9 to 35.4)

 Median percentage of male participants in studies

44.0 (5 to 100)

 Median baseline daily step count [29,30,31, 34,35,36, 38,39,40,41,42,43, 45]

5016 (3034 to 9516)