Reporting guidelines for nutritional epidemiology and dietary assessment research

1. STrengthening the Reporting of
OBservational studies in Epidemiology -
Nutritional Epidemiology
STROBE-nut
An extension of the STROBE statement
The STROBE-nut consortium
Lachat et al. (2016) PLoS Med. ;13(6):e1002036

2. In this presentation
• What are research reporting guidelines and
why do they matter
• How to use research reporting guidelines
correctly
• What is STROBE
• What is STROBE-nut: a STROBE extension for
nutritional epidemiology
• Where to find more information

3. Why better reporting matters
http://researchwaste.net
• Poor reporting is a major source of research waste
• Published trial reports: 40–89% were non-replicable1
• Most studies had at least one primary outcome changed,
introduced, or omitted from the protocol1
• Research papers are incomplete
• Authors may not know what essential information to include
• Reviewers/editors may not know what should be included
• Consequence
• Incorrect interpretation of findings
• Loss of studies and information
1 Glasziou et al. 2014.. The Lancet, 383, 267-276

4. EQUATOR:
“ Research reports should present sufficient
information to allow a full evaluation of the
presented data and further use of these findings ”
Reporting guidelines: lessons for journal editors from the EQUATOR Network Presentation Altman EQUATOR 2014

5. What are reporting guidelines?
• Tools for authors, reviewers and editors to
ensure completeness and transparency of
manuscripts
• Contain items to be reported
• Organized mainly
– As a checklist, explicit text, a flow diagram or a combination
– Following the structure of a research paper (Introduction, Methods,
Results, Discussion and Conclusion)
• Examples: CONSORT, PRISMA, SPIRIT
2Turner et al. 2012. Systematic Reviews, 1.
evidence shows that use of reporting guidelines influenced
reporting quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials2

6. What are reporting guidelines
Not
• A straitjacket for research papers
– Restrictions in writing style, creativity or
clarity of papers
– Instructions that interfere with the editorial or
review process
• Quality appraisal tools for studies

7. STROBE-statement
• STROBE: STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational
studies
• Evidence-based, minimum set of recommendations for
reporting of observational studies.
• A set of 22 items to report cohort studies, case-control studies
and cross-sectional studies.
• STROBE-extensions
• STROBE-extensions: provide guidance for specific areas e.g.
– STREGA: Genetic Associations
– STOBE-ME: Molecular Epidemiology
– STROME-ID: Infectious Diseases
– …

8. Nutritional epidemiology
• Assess the diet-disease relationship in humans
• Nutritional epidemiology is one of the younger
disciplines in epidemiology
• Indications that reporting is problematic
– E.g. 13 of the 17 literature reviews for the 5th revision of the Nordic
Nutrition Recommendations report a lack of methodological details
causing lower quality rating or exclusion of papers.3
3Nordic Council of Ministers (2014)

9. STROBE-nut
• An extension of the STROBE- statement for
nutritional epidemiology and dietary assessment
• Checklist of 24 recommendations
• Use checklist together with
– STROBE-nut paper
– STROBE- nut explanation and elaboration
document (under preparation)
– Other STROBE extensions e.g. STROBE-ME
– The STROBE explanation & elaboration document

10. Method
• Start 2014
• Collaboration between 4
research groups
• Input from 3 Delphi
rounds with 53 external
experts
• Consensus through 3
face-to-face meetings

19. Get involved
• Reporting guidelines rely on their usefulness for
users
• Continuous & interactive process to improve
recommendations
• Submit feedback, comments, and new
evidence on the STROBE nut website
www.strobe-nut.org
or Carl.lachat@ugent.be

20. Resources
• www.strobe-nut.org
• Equator network :
• Research waste
• Downloads
• Updates and translations..
• User comments