Reporting quality of hypopressive exercise for clinical conditions: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Introduction Hypopressive exercise (HE) is a therapeutic exercise technique based on breathing and postural cues popularised for the treatment and prevention of a variety of clinical conditions. Objective: This systematic review aimed to evaluate the completeness of HE reporting in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) performed for therapeutic purposes Methods The MEDLINE, SportDiscus, Scopus and Web of Science databases were searched from inception up to May 2024 for RCTs using HE for therapeutic purposes. Two independent reviewers assessed HE intervention data regarding the completeness of HE intervention using the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR), the consensus on exercise reporting template (CERT), and the risk of bias using The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool version 2 (RoB 2). Results Of the 206 identified studies, 14 RCTs were included with a total population of 782 adults (687 females and 95 males). The average percentage of completeness of reporting for the TIDieR and CERT items was 47.5% and 33.6%, respectively. TIDieR items 1 and 2 (brief name and why) were reported 100% of the time while items 9 and 10 (tailoring and modifications) and CERT items 1 (what), 6 (how) and 14b (tailoring) were 0% reported. 35.7% of the articles had a high risk of bias. Conclusions Reporting of therapeutic interventions based on HE was low for both the TIDieR and CERT items, and a third of RCTs display a high risk of bias. There is underreporting of tailoring, progression, modifications, and delivery of HE planning.