Royal College of Physicians Intercollegiate Stroke Working Party evidence‐based guidelines for the secondary prevention of stroke through nutritional or dietary modification

Abstract Background Each year, 15 million people worldwide and 110 000 people in E ngland have a stroke. Having a stroke increases the risk of having another. There are a number of additional known risk factors that can be modified by diet. The present study aimed to systematically review key nutrients and diets and their role in secondary prevention, as well as provide evidence‐based guidelines for use in clinical practice. The work was conducted as part of the process to develop the 4th edition of the R oyal C ollege of P hysicians' ( RCP ) N ational C linical G uideline ( NCG ) for S troke . Methods Questions were generated by the research team, in consultation with the V irtual S troke G roup, an online professional interest group, and the RCP I ntercollegiate S troke W orking P arty G uideline D evelopment G roup. Nine questions covering several individual nutrients and diet combinations were defined and searches conducted up until 31 October 2011 using five electronic databases ( E mbase, M edline, C umulative I ndex to N ursing and A llied H ealth L iterature ( CINAHL ), C ochrane L ibrary and W eb of S cience). All included studies were assessed for quality and risk of bias using van T ulder criteria for randomised controlled trials ( RCT s) and Quality of Reporting of Meta‐analyses (QUORUM) criteria for systematic reviews. Results Of 4287 abstracts were identified, 79 papers were reviewed and 29 systematic reviews and RCT s were included to provide evidence for the secondary prevention components of the guidelines. For each question, evidence statements, recommendations and practical considerations were developed. Conclusions This systematic review process has resulted in the development of evidence‐based guidelines for use in clinical practice and has identified areas for further research.