Unreliable summary

Unfounded assumptions

Look out for comparisons of nutrition interventions that are sensitive to assumptions that are made.

Sometimes claims about nutrition interventions depend on putting together different types of evidence and making assumptions. For example, a claim about the effects of screening may depend on how accurate the screening tool is, assumptions about how the tool’s results will affect nutrition intervention choices, and evidence of the effects of the interventions.

When claims about a nutrition intervention depend on assumptions, it is important to consider the basis for the assumptions and to test how sensitive the results are to changes in the assumptions.

For example, claims about the importance of screening learners to identify those needing free school meals may be dependent on assumptions about the accuracy of the screening tools, the expertise of the screeners applying the tools, as well as evidence of the effectiveness of different nutrition interventions that learners could receive, alongside capacity for providing these. If there is doubt around these or other assumptions, it is important to consider how changing assumptions might affect the results of the comparison of the tools.

REMEMBER: Whenever nutrition intervention claims depend on assumptions, think about whether the assumptions are well-founded and how sensitive the results are to changes in the assumptions that were made.