Sugar Nutrition UK is committed to improving the understanding of the role that carbohydrates have in a healthy, balanced diet, through impartial quality research.
We fund systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, and acute studies which are undertaken by respected scientists in established academic institutions across the UK, and occasionally, Europe.
All of Sugar Nutrition UK's funding agreements include a contractual obligation to publish in peer-reviewed literature, which ensures that the full results are available to the scientific community and beyond.
We are leading the way by requiring that researchers who are granted Sugar Nutrition UK funding to conduct trials register their research with an appropriate, publically accessible, trial registry and report their findings in line with guidelines for best practice, such as the CONSORT guidelines.
For more information on the guidelines developed to improve the accuracy and transparency of health care reporting, please visit the EQUATOR network webpage.
What are clinical trial registries?
Clinical trial registries were developed to help ensure that all of the measurements taken during a research study are documented and reported. This helps to avoid selective reporting, where the primary aims of a study are adjusted to present only the interesting or desired results. In such a case, the reader of the publication would be presented with an incomplete and biased view of the findings.
Originally designed for addressing the lack of transparency and communication of findings from some pharmaceutical trials, these registers are now playing an important role in other research sectors, including nutrition.
One of the largest trial registries was developed by the National Institutes of Health and contains information on more than 150,000 trials which have taken place all over the world. This database is publically accessible and can be found here.