Cochrane Nutrition and Physical Activity provides a hub of expertise on interventions and strategies to reduce disease burden related to poor nutrition and physical inactivity by supporting the generation and synthesis of evidence identified as priorities by key national, regional and international stakeholders.
About us
This work includes inputs into methods required for effective and efficient synthesis of the impact of complex interventions, stakeholder engagement with global partners including the World Health Organization (WHO), and implementation and knowledge translation in these areas.
The core groups partnering in this Thematic Group are Cochrane Public Health, Cochrane Germany, Cochrane Nutrition, as well as the Nutrition and Food Security sub-group of The Campbell Collaboration.
Topic scope
Our topic scope includes:
1. Priority nutrition-related interventions or strategies to improve diets and nutrition at individual, community, and population levels to reduce the triple burden of malnutrition (undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight) and its associated consequences, towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals relevant to nutrition and health. This will include interventions or strategies related to:
- diets (quantity, quality, diversity, safety, adequacy)
- patients and public behaviours (choices and awareness related to acquiring, preparing, cooking, storing and eating food)
- food environments (availability, access, affordability, acceptability, information, guidelines and advertising, food safety and quality, policy conditions)
- food supply (retail, marketing, packaging, processing, manufacturing, storage, trade, production).
2. Priority population or community-level physical activity interventions, and/or activities to reduce sedentary behaviour, within the context of the four broader categories for action defined in the WHO’s Global Action Plan On Physical Activity 2018-2030: 1) creating active societies; 2) creating active environments; 3) creating active people, and; 4) creating active systems. These include:
- interventions operating at the population (non-individual) level (community, systems, policy, legislation and regulation, as well as single and multi-country national physical activity strategies or action plans)
- interventions in settings outside healthcare (education, transport, the built environment, agriculture, childcare and social services)
- strategies to improve the translation of physical activity intervention into policy and practice
- assessment of pathways, methods, effects and evaluation approaches of physical activity interventions scaled up to the population level.
The following will generally be considered as out of scope:
- physical activity interventions for individuals’ management, treatment or targeted prevention of specific clinical conditions, nor as part of rehabilitation programmes
- pharmaceutical-only or herbal medicines and products
- plants or other components not routinely used in food (for example, Echinacea)
- non-nutritional applications of nutrients or bioactive food components (for example, topical).
The group is keen to cover multi-component interventions and strategies addressing priority global health burdens related to poor nutrition, sedentary behaviour and related risk factors within the environments in which people of all ages eat, move, play, grow, work, live and age. Examples include obesity prevention, settings-based strategies and multi-sectoral actions to reduce non-communicable disease risk. Supported reviews should have a considerable focus on reducing inequities and addressing the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged people and population groups.
Our team
- Celeste Naude, Group Director: Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Luke Wolfenden, Group Director: School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Australia
- Hayley Christian, Group Executive: Telethon Kids Institute and School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, Australia
- Solange Durao, Group Executive: Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, South Africa
- Sam McCrabb, Group Executive: School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Australia
- Lukas Schwingshackl, Group Executive: Institute for Evidence in Medicine, University of Freiburg, Germany
Our plans
Our vision is to be an independent, globally recognized go-to place for evidence syntheses aligned with our scope.
Our goals
- Support and enable evidence-informed decision-making for policy and practice by advancing the preparation and impact of high quality, relevant evidence syntheses.
- Be a collaborative and sustainable component of Cochrane’s ecosystem for producing high-quality, trusted evidence
- Add appreciable value to Cochrane’s vision of a world of better health for all people.
Our objectives
Our objectives include:
- Increase the relevance, timeliness and quality of evidence synthesis aligned with our scope by actively engaging in priority-setting with key evidence users and decision-makers, producing high-quality evidence syntheses on priority topics, and strengthening methods for trustworthy evidence synthesis and evidence use relevant to nutrition and physical activity questions.
- Increase the impact and visibility of Cochrane evidence synthesis aligned with our scope across all target audiences through coordinated knowledge translation, and build demand for evidence-informed decision-making across all actors in the health decision-making ecosystem.
News
Find us on LinkedIn @CochraneNutritionandPhysicalActivity
Contact us
To contact the Cochrane Nutrition and Physical Activity Thematic Group, email us.
