Nutrition Systematic Reviews and Knowledge Translation

Systematic literature reviews are the backbone of evidence synthesis methods and the core of knowledge translation and evidence-informed decision making. In the last decades, major U.S. and international agencies have adopted such evidence-informed decision-making processes to produce nutrition and public health guidelines and policies. It is important, therefore, that nutrition scientists learn how various review approaches can be used to advance their work in nutrition epidemiology, nutrition intervention, dietetic practice, and policy advocacy. This course is designed to teach students about the various systematic literature review approaches available for the synthesis of nutrition research and will include a deep examination of the principles and methodologies of full systematic reviews, scoping reviews, evidence mapping, and meta-epidemiological study designs. By combining classroom sessions with substantial individual work, students in this course will learn how to perform each step in a systematic review and will apply that knowledge to a topic of their choosing by writing a review protocol. Students will get feedback at each stage in the review planning process and will have the opportunity to serve as peer-reviewers for their classmates’ work. The final deliverable for the course will be a protocol for a systematic literature review