The sixth meeting of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Dietary Guidelines Expert Committee (Expert Committee) was held in 2 parts – in November in Melbourne and December via videoconference.
Dietary guidelines for older Australians
The Department of Health and Aged Care has commissioned a review of evidence on dietary guidelines for older Australians as an additional component of the revised Australian Dietary Guidelines. The dietary advice for older Australians work will be aligned with the revised Australian Dietary Guidelines, where possible.
To support this work, NHMRC intends to appoint one or 2 new Members to strengthen expertise on older Australians and diet. New members will undergo the same appointment process as current members.
Updated timeline
It is anticipated that the Dietary Guidelines, including the dietary advice for older Australians work, will be finalised in the third quarter of 2026. The Expert Committee noted the updated timeline.
Sustainability
The Expert Committee previously advised that broader expertise is required to support the priority research area of sustainable diets (accessible, affordable and equitable diets with low environmental impacts). A working group is being considered to provide advice to the Expert Committee. Members advised on the expertise required for a sustainability working group and recommended an open selection process. A call for expressions of interest to appoint suitable members to the sustainability working group is planned.
The Expert Committee noted the summary of international dietary guideline approaches to incorporating sustainability messages completed by NHMRC. The 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines provides information on sustainability in Appendix G. The Expert Committee advised that sustainability messaging should be incorporated within the revised Dietary Guidelines, and not included as a separate section within the appendices.
Scoping
Ahead of the meeting, a contracted literature search was conducted to identify relevant systematic reviews to answer the priority research questions. This was supplemented by the recent public call for systematic reviews. These activities identified a large number of potentially eligible systematic reviews that could be considered to address the priority research questions.
The Expert Committee noted the large number of systematic reviews identified and the need for this number to be reduced to ensure the risk of bias assessments are manageable within time and resource constraints. Members noted that blinded assessment of PI/ECO characteristics of the potentially eligible reviews had previously been identified as a suitable approach to reduce the number of reviews proceeding to risk of bias assessment if the number was unmanageable. Members defined principles to identify which of the potentially relevant blinded systematic reviews would progress to risk of bias assessment. These principles were then used to select potentially relevant systematic reviews to be progressed to risk of bias assessment.
Next meeting
The next Expert Committee meeting is scheduled for quarter one 2024. Members will be provided with the findings of the risk of bias assessment. Members will then advise on which systematic reviews will be considered to update the body of evidence underpinning the guidelines and which research questions should be prioritised for de novo systematic review.