The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized the need to use more rigorous processes to ensure that health care recommendations are informed by the best available research evidence. In response to a call from the Fifty-eighth World Health Assembly, WHO established the Guidelines Review Committee (GRC) with the purpose of developing and implementing procedures to ensure that WHO guidelines are developed in ways consistent with best practice, emphasizing the appropriate use of evidence. These procedures, described in the WHO Handbook for Guideline Development have been adopted by the Organization as of 1 January 2009.
The Department of Nutrition for Health and Development (NHD) has strengthened its role in providing evidence-informed policy and programme guidance to Member States, in partnership with relevant internal partners and guided by the new WHO guidelines development process. This normative mandate was reaffirmed through a request from the 63rd World Health Assembly to strengthen the evidence base on effective and safe nutrition actions to counteract the public health effects of the double burden of malnutrition, and to describe good practices for successful implementation, acknowledging that achieving the Millennium Development Goals would require the reduction of maternal and child malnutrition.
NHD in collaboration with internal partners established the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) in 2010 guided by the WHO Steering Committee for Nutrition Guidelines Development, which includes representatives from all Departments in WHO with an interest in the provision of recommendations in nutrition. The membership of NUGAG for 2010-2011 includes experts from various WHO Expert Advisory Panels and experts from a larger roster developed through open calls for experts, taking into consideration a balanced mix of genders, multiple disciplinary areas of expertise, and representation from all WHO Regions.
Currently, the NUGAG consists of four subgroups: 1) micronutrients, 2) diet and health, 3) nutrition in the life course and undernutrition and 4) monitoring and evaluation.
The March 2011 meeting will be the 2nd meeting for the NUGAG Subgroup on Diet and Health following the 1st meeting held in February 2010. At the March meeting, outcomes for the systematic reviews on the topics of total fat and sugars (e.g. weight gain and dental caries for sugars, and weight gain for total fat) will be reviewed. Additionally, the scope of the systematic reviews to be undertaken related to salt/sodium and potassium will be defined and the PICO tables to guide the systematic reviews will be finalized.
The main objectives of this meeting are:
Recommendations on sugars and total fat:
- Review and discuss the outcomes of the systematic reviews of the evidence for sugars and total fats;
- Review the GRADE Evidence profiles for sugars and total fat;
- Review draft evidence-informed recommendations on sugars and total fat;
- Assess the strength of the recommendations, taking into consideration the balance of evidence on benefits and harms, costs, values and preferences;
- Define implications for research on the issues related to sugars and total fat;
- Determine a ‘review by’ date for the guideline validity, considering the ongoing research and controversies.
Recommendations on salt/sodium and potassium:
- Review the draft scoping questions, and priority outcomes for recommendations on salt/sodium and potassium;
- Finalize the PICO tables for salt/sodium and potassium consumption;
- Identify what systematic reviews in the area of salt/sodium and potassium are required;
- Draft the protocol for the systematic review(s), in order to facilitate the process of undertaking subsequent systematic review(s), on salt/sodium and potassium.
The draft recommendations related to sugars and total fat will be reviewed during the March meeting and then will be revised by the WHO Secretariat. The revised draft recommendations will be forwarded to the WHO Nutrition Guidance Steering Committee, the members of the NUGAG Subgroup on Diet and Health, and the Key External Experts and Stakeholders Panel for feedback prior to the next NUGAG meeting in November 2011 where they will be finalized.
In accordance with the process established in the WHO Handbook for Guideline Development, the WHO is seeking input and comments on the draft scoping document related to recommendations of salt/sodium and potassium consumption. We welcome all comments from any interested parties on the scoping document.
Please note that if you would like to comment on both the salt/sodium recommendations and the potassium recommendations, you should submit a form for each individually.