- Title
- Effects of a community-based salt reduction program in a regional Australian population
- Creator
- Land, Mary-Anne; Wu, Jason H. Y.; Flood, Victoria; Neal, Bruce; Selwyn, Adrianna; Crino, Michelle; Woodward, Mark; Chalmers, John; Webster, Jacqui; Nowson, Caryl; Jeffery, Paul; Smith, Wayne
- Relation
- BMC Public Health Vol. 16, Issue 1, no. 388
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3064-3
- Publisher
- BioMed Central
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2016
- Description
- Background: Salt reduction is a public health priority but there are few studies testing the efficacy of plausible salt reduction programs. Methods: A multi-faceted, community-based salt reduction program using the Communication for Behavioral Impact framework was implemented in Lithgow, Australia. Single 24-h urine samples were obtained from 419 individuals at baseline (2011) and from 572 at follow-up (2014). Information about knowledge and behaviors relating to salt was also collected. Results: Survey participants were on average 56 years old and 58 % female. Mean salt intake estimated from 24-h urine samples fell from 8.8 g/day (SD = 3.6 g/day) in 2011 to 8.0 (3.6) g/day in 2014 (-0.80, 95 % confidence interval -1.2 to -0.3;p < 0.001). There were significant increases in the proportion of participants that knew the recommended upper limit of salt intake (18 % vs. 29 %; p < 0.001), knew the importance of salt reduction (64 % vs. 78 %; p < 0.001) and reported changing their behaviors to reduce their salt intake by using spices (5 % vs. 28 %; p < 0.001) and avoiding eating out (21 % vs. 34 %; p < 0.001). However, the proportions that checked food labels (30 % vs. 25 %; p = 0.02) fell, as did the numbers avoiding processed foods (44 % vs. 35 %; p = 0.006). Twenty-six percent reported using salt substitute at the end of the intervention period and 90 % had heard about the program. Findings were robust to multivariable adjustment. Conclusions: Implementation of this multi-faceted community-based program was associated with a ~10 % reduction in salt consumption in an Australian regional town. These findings highlight the potential of well-designed health promotion programs to compliment other population-based strategies to bring about much-needed reductions in salt consumption.
- Subject
- salt; sodium; 24-hour urine; cardiovascular disease prevention
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1344363
- Identifier
- uon:29402
- Identifier
- ISSN:1471-2458
- Rights
- © 2016 Land et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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