EBN.org
Evidence-Based
Nutrition
Definition of EBP
Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) posits that health care providers, health service workers and policymakers use the best available evidence, ideally from up-to-date, high-quality systematic reviews or guidelines (if available), together with clinical or real-world experience, to help patients or members of the public prevent, resolve, or cope with problems related to their health, according to their values and preferences.
Core competencies in EBP (treatment, prevention)
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature, EBP is based on five core competencies:
(i) Formulating a structured clinical or public health question ​
P | I | C | O | T4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Population Patient Problem | Intervention or exposure | Comparator | Outcome(s) | Time point for outcome Type of study (Experimental, observational) |
Who are the patients? | What do we do to them? | What do we compare the intervention with? | What happens? | Type of question (Treatment, prevention, prognosis, diagnosis) |
What is the problem? | What are they exposed to? | What is the outcome? | Trade-offs (Alternative treatments, benefits, harms) |
(ii) Finding the best available research evidence (un-appraised & pre-appraised evidence)
(iii) Assessing the methodological quality of the available evidence (e.g. cohort and randomized studies)
(iv) Assessing the study results (i.e. magnitude [size] of effects and precision of effects) for all desirable (benefits) and undesirable (harms) outcomes
(v) Applying results based on the generalizability of the evidence to one’s patient (clinical) or target population (public health).
​Applicability includes the patient or population health-related values and preferences based on the best available evidence for potential benefits, harms and the burdens of an intervention.
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*Values refer to a patients or populations values or attitudes toward different health outcomes (e.g., mortality, heart attack, lipid profile)
**Preferences refer to preferential choices after the best available, (i.e. magnitude of effect, certainty of evidence for valued outcomes of benefit and potential harm) is shared with patients
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For further reading, please see philosophy of evidence-based principles and practice in nutrition, and evidence-based practice competencies among nutrition students and professionals.
About Us
EBN.org
EBN.org is an independent education and research group with clinical, nutritional and epidemiological content expertise, skilled in teaching EBP and in the methodology of conducting high-quality applied human research studies including randomized trials, cohort studies, systematic reviews and practice guidelines. We aim to produce educational resources on EBP for the nutrition profession (e.g. Users’ Guides, seminars, workshops, podcasts), and examples of high-quality nutritional guideline recommendations based on the health-related values and preferences of patients and community members.
Our educational resources are partially supported by the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) R25.
The EBN.org Team
Leadership
Dr. Bradley Johnston
Bradley is the Director and Co-founder of EvidenceBasedNutrition.org and NutriRECS. He is an Associate Professor with the Departments of Nutrition (primary appointment) & Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Texas A&M University, College Station, USA.
Dr. Gordon Guyatt
Gordon coined the term “evidence-based medicine”, is a mentor, Clinician-Scientist and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods (formally Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics) at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Dr. Malgorzata (Gosia) Bala
Gosia is a Co-founder of EvidenceBasedNutrition.org and NutriRECS, the Head of Cochrane Poland, the Head of Departments of Hygiene and Dietetics, and Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow, Poland.
Dr. Pablo Alonso-Coello
Pablo is a Co-founder of EvidenceBasedNutrition.org and NutriRECS, the Head of the Barcelona GRADE Center, Trustee of the Guidelines International Network, former Director of the Scientific Committee for the National Guideline Program with the Spanish Ministry of Health, and is a Health Services Researcher at the Biomedical Research Institute (Hospital Sant Pau) in Barcelona, Spain.
Collaborators
Dr. Anna Prokop -Dorner
Anna is a sociologist and psychologist, with a particular interest in health-related value and preference research methodology. She is an assistant professor at the Department of Medical Sociology, Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland.
Dr. Claudia Valli
Claudia is a researcher and Project Manager for the SAFEST project at Avedis Donabedian Research Institute (FAD). She holds a PhD in Research Methodology and Public Health from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and has extensive experience conducting value and preference research, and synthesizing the research evidence to support clinical and nutritional practice guidelines (ORCID 0000-0002-4393-3690).
Dr. Danielle Maria de Souza Serio dos Santos
Danielle is pharmacist, PhD in Public Health and Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She is a member of the nucleus for health technology assessment at the University of Sorocaba, São Paulo, and Evidence Coalition in Brazil. She is interested evidence-based practice related to Public Policy and health measures.
Dr. Dena Zeraatkar
Dena is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. Her research centers on evidence synthesis and evaluation to guide complex healthcare and public health decisions.
Dr. Jéssica Cumpian Silva
Cumpian is a nutritionist, with a Masters and PhD in Nutrition and Public Health from the University of Sao Paulo. She is a member of the health technology assessment core at the University of Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil. She is interested in evidence-based practices related to public health policy.
Dr. Joanna ZajÄ…c
Joanna is dietician and biochemist at the Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. She is the coordinator of research in the field of Occupational Health, and is a tutor in evidence-based clinical practice (EBCP) and evidence synthesis methods course for medical students. She regularly collaborates with Cochrane Poland on systematic reviews and the dissemination of review results.
Dr. Lehana Thabane
Lehana is a Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. He is also the Director of Research at St Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton and the Co-Editor-in-Chief of BMC Pilot and Feasibility Studies.
Dr. Long Ge
Long is a Researcher at the Evidence-Based Social Science Research Center, School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, China. He is also an adjunct Assistant Professor at McMaster University and a core member of the WHO Collaborating Center for Guideline Implementation and Knowledge Translation and the GRADE Chinese Center.
Dr. Luciane Cruz Lopes
Luciane is a coordinator of the Evidence Center for Health Policy (SERIEMA) and a full Professor at the University of Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil. She is a member of Eurodrug, the Brazilian Health Technology Assessment Network and Evidence Coalition, and the lead for the Latin American Regional Interest Group with the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology.
Dr. Mariana Del Grossi Moura
Moura is a physical therapist, PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is a member of the nucleus for health technology assessment at the University of Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil. She is interested in evidence-based practice related to Public Policy and chronic disease management, particularly with respect to systematic review and evidence synthesis.
Dr. Mina Nicole Händel
Mina is an associate professor in the Department of Clinical Research at University of Southern Denmark, and a senior researcher at the Parker Institute, Denmark. She has research experience in randomized trials, observational studies, systematic reviews and guidelines related to obesity, maternal nutrient status and bone health. She has considerable nutritional epidemiology experience using Danish national registries, biobanks, as well as comprehensive longitudinal birth cohorts.
Dr. Montserrat Rabassa
Montserrat is a Nutritionist and a senior researcher within the Ramón y Cajal program of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation at the Department of Nutrition, Food Sciences and Gastronomy of the University of Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain.
Dr. Per Vandvik
Per is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Management and Health Economics, University of Oslo, Norway, and Founder and Director of the MAGIC (Making GRADE the Irresistible Choice) research and innovation program.
Dr. Robin Christensen
Robin, professor of Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology at the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Southern Denmark, and is a senior biostatistician at the Parker Institute, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, Denmark. He is a statistics editor for the Cochrane Collaboration’ and a contributing member of several prominent groups, including the GRADE Working Group and Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT).
Dr. Robin Vernooij
Robin is an Assistant Professor, Department of Nephrology and Hypertension & Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care at the University Medical Centre Utrecht. He is also an affiliated Researcher at Cochrane Netherlands.
Dr. Russell de Souza
Russell is a Registered Dietitian, Nutrition Epidemiologist and an Associate Professor with the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. He has served as an advisor to the WHO’ Nutrition Guidelines Advisory Committee on saturated, trans, and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Sylwia Jopek
Sylwia is a nutritionist and a researcher. She works in the Hygiene and Dietetics Department, College of Medicine at Jagiellonian University, Poland. Her aim is to create reliable, high-quality summary evidence on nutrition to inform student teaching, and for treating patients.
Dr. Tina Poklepovic
Tina is a Dentist, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Cochrane Croatia at the Split School of Medicine in Croatia.
Dr. Yaping Chang
Yaping is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. Her research interests include clinical evidence synthesis and appraisal, clinical guideline development, epidemiology and international health.
Trainees
Dr. Dawid Storman
Dawid is a medical doctor, a trainee in adult psychiatry, a psychotherapist and a PhD student with an interest in nutrition at the Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland. He has been involved in Cochrane systematic reviews and clinical trial methods for over 5 years, and has been a tutor in evidence-based clinical practice (EBCP) and evidence synthesis methods to medical, dietetic and PhD students.
Jeremy Steen
Jeremy is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funded MSc candidate in the Health Systems Research (HSR) program at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, Canada. His research interests include methodology of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, evidence-informed practice, and outcomes research in anesthesia and pain medicine, and clinical nutrition epidemiology.
Dr. Laís Lessa Neiva Pantuzza
Lais is pharmacist, PhD in Drug Utilization and Pharmaceutical Policies. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sorocaba, São Paulo, and member of the Evidence Coalition in Brazil. She is interested in evidence-based practice related to Public Policy and health measures.
Malgorzata (Margaret) Maraj
Malgorzata is a PhD student working in the Hygiene and Dietetics Department at Jagiellonian University Medical College, Poland. As a clinical dietician she is eager to implement evidence-based care into clinical practice; as an academic teacher she aims to provide her students with critical thinking skills essential for evidence-informed decisions; and as a researcher she is interested in improving nutrition research methodology.
Dr. Mateusz Swierz
Mateusz is a medical doctor, a surgical resident and a PhD student at the Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland. His research and clinical interests revolve around systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice. Being a firm believer in systematic approach to inform research and clinical practice, his research aims to improve the science of systematic reviews, so that high-quality up-to-date reviews can optimally inform clinical practice.
Michelle Rigsby
Michelle, a current PhD student in the Department of Nutrition at Texas A&M University, is passionate about supporting a vibrant, healthy lifestyle with nutrition, exercise, and mindfulness. She aspires to provide evidence-based care to support the quality of life of working professionals by utilizing evidence-based practice and systematic review methodology.
Nirjhar Ruth Ghosh
Ruth is an Applied Nutrition PhD student in the Department of Nutrition at Texas A&M University. Her work focuses on evaluating evidence-based practice competencies and teaching strategies. She aims to become an applied research methodologist and to teach and promote the principles of evidence-based practice among nutrition trainees and professionals.
Sahar (Zahra) Esmaeilinezhad
Sahar is a PhD student in the Department of Nutrition at Texas A&M University. She is interested in evidence-based practice related to obesity and chronic disease management, particularly with respect to evidence synthesis, the minimal important difference (MID) and the certainty of evidence as it relates to causal inference.
Alumni
Dr. Behnam Sadeghirad
Behnam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact (formerly known as Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics) at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Dr. Mi Ah Han
Mi Ah’s is a Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine, Chosun University, Republic of Korea. Her work focuses on epidemiology, preventive medicine and, as former McMaster Visiting Scientist, she is also an educator emphasizing optimal health research methods and evidence-based healthcare.
Dr. Qin Guo
Qin is a Pediatrician-Scientist at West China Second Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. Her research is focused on improving the quality of clinical research in pediatrics in China, particularly related to the methodological development of systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines that evaluate the potential for probiotic administration among children with infectious diseases.
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