Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disabling psychological condition associated with significant physical comorbidities. There has been growing evidence to support the relationship between PTSD and cardiometabolic disease. Disordered eating behaviors often seen in people with PTSD symptoms may explain increased cardiometabolic risk. This systematic review aimed to assess the quality of evidence surrounding dietary intake of individuals with symptoms or a diagnosis of PTSD and their associated risk with cardiometabolic health outcomes. Online databases Scopus, ProQuest (Health), Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, and CINAHL with Full Text were searched for peer-reviewed English articles prior to December 2017 that examined dietary intake and cardiometabolic health outcomes in adults with PTSD symptoms or diagnosis. The quality of each study was graded based on the design and methodology using adapted quality assessment tools. Seven studies with five unique participant samples were included in the review. Study methods, design, populations, and outcomes were inconsistent across studies. Dietary intake was considerably varied and limited associations were demonstrated between dietary intake and cardiometabolic risk factors in the PTSD cohorts. Due to the variability of measures and study outcomes, there was insufficient evidence to determine the relationship between dietary intake and PTSD-related cardiometabolic health outcomes. Future studies are needed to examine these associations in individuals with PTSD: specifically higher quality descriptive studies are necessary to confirm a link between diet and cardiometabolic disease in PTSD.

Diarrhoea is common in enterally-fed patients and can impact their nutritional and overall outcomes. This meta-analysis evaluates the potential benefits of fibre-supplemented (FS) feeds on incidence of diarrhoea and stool frequency in non-critically ill tube-fed adults. Databases including PubMed, Embase and CINAHL with full text were searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with adults on exclusive tube feeding, published until August 2022. The Cochrane Collaboration’s tool was used for quality assessment. Studies with published results on incidence of diarrhoea and stool frequency were analysed using RevMan 5. Thirteen RCTs with 847 non-critically ill patients between 20 and 90 years old without diarrhoea at the onset of enteral feeding were included. Study duration ranged from 3 to 35 days. Nine papers investigated the incidence of diarrhoea where intervention group was given FS and control was given non-fibre supplemented (NFS) enteral feeds. Those receiving FS feeds were significantly less likely to experience diarrhoea as compared to those using NFS feeds (OR 0.44; 95% CI: 0.20 to 0.95; p=0.04; I2=71%). Combined analysis from five out of 13 RCTs showed no differences in stool frequency in those receiving NFS feeds (SMD 0.32; 95% CI: -0.53 to 1.16; p=0.47; I2 = 90%). Results should be interpreted with caution due to considerable heterogeneity between study population, assessment tool for diarrhoea, potential conflict of interest, and short duration of studies. This meta-analysis shows that FS feeds can reduce the incidence of diarrhoea in non-critically ill adults, however, the effects of stool frequency remain debatable.