Programmes raised confidence to be active a little, but the gain didn't clearly last

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   180 trials of adults aged 18 and over who lived in the community. The paper doesn't print how many people took part in total.

2. 02

   What they did

   Each programme aimed to get people more active and used about seven different methods. The other groups got nothing, usual care, a waiting list or a different programme.

3. 03

   What happened

   Right after the programmes, people's confidence to be active rose a little more than in the other groups. Later on, the gain was tiny and not clear, and the paper's results link using more methods with keeping more of it. Most trials had weaknesses in how they were run.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Across 180 trials, the programmes raised people's confidence to be active more than the other groups did.

   Pooled analysis of 204 studies · vs nothing, or a different programme · they rated themselves · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; signs that small negative studies went unpublished; the studies disagreed a lot; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. No difference

   Later on, the programmes did not clearly raise confidence to be active more than the other groups did.

   Pooled analysis of 27 studies · vs nothing, or a different programme · they rated themselves · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; the studies disagreed a lot; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source