A systematic review of reviews identifying UK validated dietary assessment tools for inclusion on an interactive guided website for researchers: www.nutritools.org

Background: Health researchers may struggle to choose suitable validated dietary assessment tools (DATs) for their target population. The aim of this review was to identify and collate information on validated UK DATs and validation studies for inclusion on a website to support researchers to choose appropriate DATs. Design: A systematic review of reviews of DATs was undertaken. DATs validated in UK populations were extracted from the studies identified. A searchable website was designed to display these data. Additionally, mean differences and limits of agreement between test and comparison methods were summarized by a method, weighting by sample size. Results: Over 900 validation results covering 5 life stages, 18 nutrients, 6 dietary assessment methods, and 9 validation method types were extracted from 63 validated DATs which were identified from 68 reviews. These were incorporated into www.nutritools.org. Limits of agreement were determined for about half of validations. Thirty four DATs were FFQs. Only 17 DATs were validated against biomarkers, and only 19 DATs were validated in infant/children/adolescents. Conclusions: The interactive www.nutritools.org website holds extensive validation data identified from this review and can be used to guide researchers to critically compare and choose a suitable DAT for their research question, leading to improvement of nutritional epidemiology research

Predictors of prolonged symptoms following COVID-19 and other respiratory infections

Background: post-viral syndromes following respiratory tract infections have been described for years. Early studies of COVID-19 have suggested that around 2% of people who develop acute infection will still have symptoms at 12 weeks. Understanding predictors of prolonged symptoms may help inform early management and healthcare planning.Aim: to explore predictors of prolonged symptoms in a community cohort reporting acute respiratory tract infection during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods:We conducted an online survey of adults through advertising to the public and invitations sent by general practices. Participants were asked to report details of any respiratory infections lasting 3 days or more and asked to report any prolonged symptoms in a follow-up survey sent 3-months later. Clustering of prolonged symptoms was explored using factor analysis. Demographics, past medical history, and features of the acute illness were all considered as potential predictors. We used LASSO to select predictors and then logistic regression to estimate the association with experiencing prolonged symptoms.Results: 1,942 participants reported an ARI in the baseline questionnaire and completed a 3-month follow-upquestionnaire. Of these, 464 (23.9%) reported having prolonged symptoms. The most common prolonged symptoms were tiredness, ‘brain fog’ and shortness of breath. Preliminary analysis has identified having laboratory confirmed or ‘probable’ COVID, older age, female sex, greater socioeconomic deprivation, greater concern about the initial illness, and shortness of breath, loss of taste and skin rash, as predictors of prolonged symptoms.Discussion: the analysis is ongoing and will be presented at the meeting

A conceptual framework for early life determinants of future multimorbidity

Background: social, biological and environmental factors in early life, defined as the period from preconception until age 18, play a role in shaping the risk of Multiple Long-Term Condition Multimorbidity (MLTC-M). There is a need for conceptual framing of these factors to inform and shape future research on aetiology and for modelling prevention scenarios of MLTC-M. We developed a conceptual framework to characterise early life determinants of future MLTC-M risk.Methods: the conceptualisation of determinant domains was shaped by reviewing existing research evidence and policy, and co-produced with public contributors living in the UK via two workshops, one with 8 contributors age 18-30 regardless of MLTC-M status, and one with 12 contributors age 40-65 who all self-reported MLTC-M.Results: domains included: 1.Prenatal, antenatal, neonatal and birth; 2.Adverse childhood experiences; 3.Child health, check-ups and screening; 4.Developmental attributes; 5.Child education and health literacy; 6.Demographics; 7. Parent health and health behaviours; 8.Socioeconomics; 9.Parental family factors; 10.Neighbourhood, physical environment and health care systems; 11.Health behaviours and diet; 12.Religion, spirituality and culture. Some domains identified by the public contributors, such as religion, health screening, check-ups, and diet, were not well represented within the research evidence or policy documents.Conclusions: this co-produced conceptualisation can inform research to investigate the early life characteristics of population groups at risk of future MLTC-M, as well as policy directions towards prevention of early-onset MLTC-M. Additionally, it can shape the direction of further data collection, particularly with respect to the understudied domains identified by our public contributors