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Developing practice guidelines

Developing practice guidance can be a labour intensive and time-consuming process but it is an important part of being a specialist group. The following information is intended for use by BDA specialist groups who are considering developing practice guidelines.

The BDA do not have set guidance on how specialist groups should develop practice guidelines. However, we insist on all guidelines being published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (JHND), in order for them to be endorsed with the BDA name. The BDA would not endorse guidelines that have been rejected by the Journal.

Support at each stage of developing practice guidelines can be obtained from a number of sources, key sources of information have been highlighted below:

Funding

BDA General Education Trust Fund (GET)

GET has previously funded specialist groups to help with their guideline development. You can find more information and the relevant applications forms here.

Development

Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (JHND)

It is strongly recommended that you consult the author guidelines very early in the development process and not at the writing stage. The JHND author guidelines can be accessed here, useful information specific to practice guidelines can be found in section 4.2 Professional Guidelines Papers.

Reading the methods section of previously published guidelines will provide valuable information to help develop guidelines in a robust way, published guidelines include:

McKenzie YA, Bowyer RK, Leach H, et al. British Dietetic Association systematic review and evidence-based practice guidelines for the dietary management of irritable bowel syndrome in adults (2016 update). J Hum Nutr Diet 2016; 29: 549-575.

GRADE Approach

The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach to developing practice guidelines has been widely endorsed and is considered the gold standard in guideline development. You can find out more about this approach, as well as links to other relevant resources here. 

An example of dietetic practice guidelines developed using the GRADE approach include:

Lomer CE, Wilson B, Wall C. British Dietetic Association consensus guidelines on the nutritional assessment and dietary management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. J Hum Nutr Diet 2022; 36: 336-377.

Practice Based Evidence in Nutrition (PEN®)

PEN has resources aimed at helping authors develop practice guidelines using a modified GRADE approach which was developed specially for dietary guidelines. They can be found on the website under the heading PEN GRADE Tools.

BDA Office Support

You can request additional support on developing practice guidelines via our Research Officer, Judy Lawerence. Judy is happy to chat with your group, but recommends that you review all of the above information and links first.

Useful Links