Characterizing dietary intakes in rural Australian adults: A systematic literature review

Rural Australians experience a higher burden of diet-related chronic disease than theirmetropolitan counterparts. Dietary intake data is needed to understand priorities for nutritioninitiatives that reduce disparities in the health of rural Australians. A systematic literature reviewaimed to synthesize the evidence on dietary intakes in adult populations residing in rural andremote Australia, to identify areas for intervention, and make recommendations for future research.A comprehensive search of five electronic databases was conducted and 22 articles were identifiedfor inclusion. Half of the included studies (50%) collected dietary data using non-validatedquestionnaires and nearly half (41%) did not benchmark dietary intakes against public healthguidelines. Most studies (95%) showed that rural populations have suboptimal dietary intakes.Despite the high level of preventable diet-related disease in rural and remote Australia, this reviewidentified that there is insufficient high-quality dietary data available and a lack of consistency betweendietary outcomes collected in research to inform priority areas for intervention. Further cross-sectionalor longitudinal data should be collected across all remoteness areas, using robust, validateddietary assessment tools to adequately inform nutrition priorities and policies that reduce ruralhealth disparities