Members are encouraged to submit comments on the draft AHRQ report.
GOED is asking all members to submit comments in response to the draft report from the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) entitled, "Dietary Total Fat Intake and Dietary Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Intake and Child Growth and Development Outcomes: A Systematic Review," on which GOED reported in a 29 August 2025 news alert. As mentioned in the alert, the reported results were disappointing and we think it’s important that the AHRQ receives rebuttal comments from as many interested parties as possible. GOED is in the process of finalizing our own comments to submit by the 29 September 2025 deadline. All comments will be publicly posted on the AHRQ website within three months of the final report being posted, and a high number of comments addressing the same issue(s) will be difficult to ignore.
While we encourage the submission of original comments, we have also drafted a short letter you can use in part or in full. The following instructions should be self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Kaitlin Roke or Harry Rice. Otherwise, be sure to submit your comments by the 29 September 2025 (11:59 pm Eastern Daylight Time) deadline.
- Insert the text from GOED’s letter, with any modifications (e.g. company specific commentary or relevant information on your company’s website), into a document with your company’s letterhead, if applicable.
- Click here to go to the website with the comment form for the draft report. You’ll note that you can submit comments directly into a form focusing on ten different areas (introduction, methods, results, summary, etc.), but if you scroll down, you can upload supporting documentation (i.e. letter).
Note that GOED’s letter for members, as well as the letter we will be submitting, focuses only on Key Question 1 – “What is the association between dietary intake of omega-6 and/or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids during pregnancy and risk of preterm birth?”
We believe that the concerns expressed in our letter apply equally to the other Key Questions. However, given AHRQ's methodology coupled with the heterogeneity of the data associated with the other questions on growth and development, we don’t believe our comments would make a difference in addressing those topics.
