Dietary sources of salt intake in adults and older people: a population-based study in a Brazilian town

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess salt intake and its dietary sources using biochemical and self-report methods and to characterize salt intake according to sociodemographic and disease-related variables in a sample of the Brazilian population.DesignPopulation-based cross-sectional survey.SettingSalt intake was assessed by biochemical (24 h urinary Na excretion) and self-report methods (sodium FFQ, 24 h dietary recall, seasoned-salt questionnaire, discretionary-salt questionnaire and total reported salt intake).ParticipantsAdults and older people (n 517) aged 20–80 years, living in Artur Nogueira, São Paulo, Brazil.ResultsMean salt intake based on 24 h urinary Na excretion and total reported salt intake was 10·5 and 11·0 g/d, respectively; both measures were significantly correlated. Discretionary salt and seasoned salt were the most important sources of salt intake (68·2 %). Men in the study consumed more salt than women as estimated by 24 h urinary Na excretion (11·7 v. 9·6 g salt/d; P<0·0001). Participants known to be hypertensive added more salt to their meals but consumed less salty ultra-processed foods. Waist circumference in both sexes and BMI were positively correlated with salt intake estimated by 24 h urinary Na excretion. In addition, regression analysis revealed that being a young male or having a high waist circumference was a predictor of higher salt intake.ConclusionsSalt intake in this population was well above the recommended amount. The main source of salt intake came from salt added during cooking. Salt intake varied according to sex and waist circumference.

Sodium and Salt Consumption in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Systematic-Review and Meta-Analysis of Population-Based Studies and Surveys

“…The meta-analysis included 12 studies published since 2010 (29,875 people), [9,11,12,14,15,19,[21][22][23] with a mean age ranging from 41.2 to 53.5 years [14,23]; the proportion of men varied between 33.7% and 48.2% [11,23]. The proportion of people with hypertension went from 17.0% to 52.5% (Table 1) [11,22].…”

“…The random effects meta-analysis including studies published since 2010 revealed a pooled mean estimates 24 h sodium consumption of 4.13 g/day (95% confidence interval: 3.82-4.44, I 2 : 99.7%) [9,11,12,14,15,19,[21][22][23], which will be equivalent to 10.49 g/day of salt.…”

“…The search yielded 2350 results, and 2297 were excluded at the screening stage; thus, 53 were studied in detail. Finally, 15 reports (i.e., individual papers) were included in the systematic review providing results for 18 studies (Figure 1) [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Two studies were excluded from meta-analysis (quantitative synthesis of results) because numeric results were not available, i.e., they only reported proportions or figures without the exact numbers [13,18].…”

“…Brazil contributed to the review with seven studies [11,14,15,[17][18][19][20], Chile with four [11,16,21,23] and Argentina with two [10,11]; whereas Barbados [9], Colombia [11], Ecuador [13], Peru [22] and Uruguay [12] contributed with one study each (Table 1). Three studies analyzed a nationally representative sample (Table 1) [9,15,21].…”

“…Six studies collected 24 h urine samples [9,12,14,19,22,23], while the others collected 12 h [17,18], overnight [10] or spot samples (Table 1) [11,15,16,20,21]. Eight studies used a formula (e.g., Kawasaki [25] or Tanaka [26]) to estimate 24 h sodium excretion (Table 1) [11,15,16,20,21].…”