Scope and purpose
In response to a call from the 58th World Health Assembly (May 2005), the World Health Organization (WHO) established the Guidelines Review Committee (GRC) in 2007 with the purpose of developing and implementing procedures to ensure that WHO guidelines are developed in ways consistent with internationally recognized best practices, emphasizing the appropriate use of systematically reviewed available evidence. The robust guideline development process being implemented by WHO is described in detail in the WHO Handbook for guideline development (2014).
To implement the strengthening of evidence-informed nutrition guidance, and in addition to convening experts in Guideline Development Groups (GDGs) to address a particular topic, the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety coordinates the work to develop a series of guidelines on topics related to healthy diets.
Following the release of a series of the WHO guidelines, including those on saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake and total fat intake, WHO is now planning to develop a guideline on consumption of tropical oils such as palm oil and coconut oil. This is in response to the need for guidance particularly in the context of replacement of industrially produced trans fat.
A GDG has been formed to develop a guideline on the topic of tropical oil consumption. The GDG includes experts identified through open calls for experts as well as experts from various WHO Expert Advisory Panels, taking into consideration a balanced mix of genders, breadth in areas of expertise and representation from all WHO Regions.
The GDG will provide advice to WHO on the development of a guideline on consumption of tropical oils, including:
- The scope of the guideline and key questions (in PICO format) that will guide the undertaking of a systematic review of evidence;
- The selection and prioritization of important outcomes for decision-making and developing recommendations;
- The examination and interpretation of the evidence with explicit consideration of the overall balance of risks and benefits;
- The formulation of recommendations and supporting remarks, taking into consideration the quality of evidence generated and compiled as well as diverse values and preferences, balance of benefits and harms, resource implications, priority of the problem, equity and human rights, acceptability and feasibility; and
- The identification of research gaps.
Objectives and expected outcomes
This is the 1st meeting of the GDG on consumption of tropical oils. The specific objectives of this meeting are to:
- Understand the WHO guideline development process including the GRADE approach
- Review scoping materials
- Develop key questions in PICO format (population, intervention, comparator, outcomes)
- Prioritize health outcomes
The expected outcome of the meeting is agreed key questions in PICO format and prioritized health outcomes.