Relationship Between Salt Intake And Lifestyle Including Diet In Hypertensive Outpatients Treated At A General Hospital

Objective: To investigate the salt intake in hypertensive outpatients treated at a general hospital and to examine the relationship between their lifestyle and the amount of salt intake Design and method: Subjects were 429 hypertensive patients (206 males, 223 females, average age 71 ± 11 years). We estimated 24-hour salt excretion using spot urine samples and checked their lifestyle using a self-description questionnaire. Results: Average clinic blood pressure (BP) and the number of antihypertensive drug were 132 ± 11/73 ± 8 mmHg and 1.8 ± 0.9 and the achievement rate of BP control defined as <140/90 mmHg was 73.4%. In all subjects, average estimated salt intake and the rate of achievement of estimated salt intake <6 g/day were 9.2 ± 2.8 g/day and 11.1%. Those of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or cardiovascular disease were 8.6 ± 2.6 g/day, 15.5%, and 9.1 ± 3.3 g/day, 18.2%, respectively. There was no significant difference in estimated salt intake between the patients with and without consciousness of salt reduction. Patients with living alone showed less estimated salt intake compared to those with a family. In the multivariate analysis, the estimated salt intake correlated positively with BMI, and negatively with age. Among patients with excessive salt intake (10 g/day<=), 75.2% of patients answered that they made an effort to reduce salt intake. A multivariate analysis revealed that the amount of food and processed food consumption correlated with estimated salt intake. Conclusions: The rate of achievement of estimated salt intake <6 g/day was low in hypertensive patients treated at a general hospital. It seemed to be important to provide feedback of data on actual salt intake and guide individually salt restriction in the hypertensive patient.