The Cochrane Library: more systematic reviews on nutrition needed

Abstract

The knowledge and relevance of nutrition as well as the demand for well-funded advices increase. The Cochrane Collaboration plays a leading role within the evidence-based medicine and practice. We advocate therefore more specialized nutritional interest within the Cochrane Collaboration. In case 'Nutrition' needs more attention within the Cochrane Library, one of the first priorities is deciding about whether to include non-randomized studies into the Specialized Register and generating lists of journals to handsearch for such a Specialized Register. Preparatory to these activities an inventory of Nutritional content within the Cochrane Library is needed. We estimate that reviews directly related to nutrition and those of borderline interest to nutrition represent less than 4% of all published reviews in The Cochrane Library.