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Table 1 Characteristics of systematic reviews of Tai Chi interventions

From: Determining the safety and effectiveness of Tai Chi: a critical overview of 210 systematic reviews of controlled clinical trials

Number of systematic reviews (SRs)

210

 Meta-analysis

165

 Narrative analysis only

45

Studies included in SRs

210

 RCTs only

193

 NRSIs only

1

 Both RCTs and NRSIs

16

RCTs per SR: Median (range)

9 (1–77)

NRSIs per SR: Median (range)

4 (1–18)

Participants per SR: Median (range)

750 (42–9263)

Publication year

 2010–2012

20

 2013–2014

33

 2015–2016

37

 2017–2018

54

 2019–2020

66

Publication language

 English

155

 Chinese

54

 Korean

1

Country / region of first author

 China, Hong Kong, Taiwan

139

 United States of America, Canada, Brazil

35

 Western Europe

19

 South Korea, Singapore, Thailand

10

 Australia, New Zealand

6

Funding

 Government / national grants

84

 University

15

 Charity

3

 No information

108

Disease / condition

 Healthy adolescents/ adults

8

 Multiple chronic diseases

9

 Falls, balance, other falls risk factors

32

 Hypertension

15

 Cancer (breast cancer n = 8)

15

 Diabetes mellitus

14

 Cognitive impairment

13

 Parkinson’s disease

13

 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

13

 Cerebrovascular disease (stroke)

11

 Mental health

11

 Ischaemic heart disease

10

 Osteoarthritis (knee n = 5)

10

 Osteoporosis / osteopenia

8

 Heart failure

6

 Sleep disorders / quality

6

 3 SRs each for: Low back pain, chronic pain

 2 SRs each for: Multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis

 1 SR each for: Hyperlipidaemia, fatigue, fibromyalgia, frailty, immunity/HIV infection, adverse effects

  1. RCT randomized controlled trial, NRSI non-randomized studies of interventions, QoL quality of life