Performance Task: Evaluating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Scenario: You will act in a consultancy role for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), undertaking an evaluation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Click each of the items below to reveal the assessment requirements.
Part 1 – Reviewing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Your first task in the evaluation is to review the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Select a specific key recommendation within the guidelines, and identify scientific evidence used to inform the chosen guideline/key recommendation. At this stage, you are not looking for new scientific evidence, rather you are reviewing the existing research used to support and inform a specific key recommendation within the current guidelines.
Complete Part 1 of the template provided, ensuring you:
- Select and describe a key recommendation within the current guidelines and the reason for your choice.
- Identify three (3) resources cited in the current guidelines that include supporting scientific evidence used to inform the selected guideline/key recommendation.
- Resources should be of varied research type from peer-reviewed journals (e.g., observational research, epidemiological research, randomized controlled trial).
- Provide references using full APA formatting.
- In your own words, explain how each resource informed the selected guideline/key recommendation.
Part 2 – Recommendations for an Updated Guideline
It is important that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans undergo evaluation to include the most up-to-date information. Your next task is to make recommendations for an updated edition of the guideline/key recommendation by finding up-to-date, supporting, and/or contrasting scientific evidence. Through your research, you may find scientific evidence to strengthen or weaken the current guideline/key recommendation. To prepare for reporting back to the USDA Dietary Guidelines Committee, you will critically analyze the resources you find to inform your recommendations.
Complete Part 2 of the template provided, ensuring you:
- Identify three (3) resources (dated within the past 5 years of the publication date of the current guidelines) that provide more recent scientific evidence to inform the guideline/key recommendation.
- Resources should be of varied research type from peer-reviewed journals (e.g., observational research, epidemiological research, randomized controlled trial).
- Provide references using full APA formatting.
- In your own words, explain how each resource either strengthens or weakens the current guideline/key recommendation.
- Consider:
- Common themes and/or differences found within the recent scientific evidence
- If the wording or intent of the selected guideline/key recommendation should be changed
Part 3 – Application of the Guideline
Your final task is to consider how you may apply your findings to a specific setting, such as home, school, workplace, community, or retail operation. Following your learning from Part 1 and Part 2, you will determine how the guideline/key recommendation might be applied in a setting familiar to you and the ways in which you might influence policy to help others meet this in practice.
Complete Part 3 of the template provided, ensuring you:
- Select a specific setting to focus on. Describe your chosen setting and the reason for your choice.
- In the home
- In schools
- In the workplace
- In the community
- In retail operations
- Recommend three (3) ways to influence policy in your selected setting to help people meet the guideline/key recommendation.
- Propose educational opportunities that could help people in your selected setting understand the guideline/key recommendation.