The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of meta-analysis regarding exercise using Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) as well as to compare effect size according to outcomes.

Electronic databases including the Korean Studies Information Service System (KISS), the National Assembly Library and the DBpia, HAKJISAand RISS4U for the dates 1990 to January 2014 were searched for 'meta-analysis' and 'exercise' in the fields of medical, nursing, physical therapy and physical exercise in Korea. AMSTAR was scored for quality assessment of the 33 articles included in the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and χ²-test.

The mean score for AMSTAR evaluations was 4.18 (SD=1.78) and about 67% were classified at the low-quality level and 30% at the moderate-quality level. The scores of quality were statistically different by field of research, number of participants, number of databases, financial support and approval by IRB. The effect size that presented in individual studies were different by type of exercise in the applied intervention.

This critical appraisal of meta-analysis published in various field that focused on exercise indicates that a guideline such as the PRISMA checklist should be strongly recommended for optimum reporting of meta-analysis across research fields.

The purpose of this study was to use meta-analysis to evaluate the variables related to depression in patients who have had a stroke.

The materials of this study were based on 16 variables obtained from 26 recent studies over a span of 10 years which were selected from doctoral dissertations, master's thesis and published articles.

Related variables were categorized into sixteen variables and six variable groups which included general characteristics of the patients, disease characteristics, psychological state, physical function, basic needs, and social variables. Also, the classification of six defensive and three risk variables group was based on the negative or positive effect of depression. The quality of life (ES= -.79) and acceptance of disability (ES=-.64) were highly correlated with depression in terms of defensive variables. For risk variables, anxiety (ES= .66), stress (ES= .53) showed high correlation effect size among the risk variables.

These findings showed that defensive and risk variables were related to depression among stroke patients. Psychological interventions and improvement in physical functions should be effective in decreasing depression among stroke patients.