Adults with heart disease often consume more daily sodium than recommended
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Key takeaways:
- The American Heart Association recommends a daily sodium intake of 1,500 mg or less for adults with CVD.
- The average daily sodium intake in a cohort of adults with CVD was more than 3,000 mg.
ATLANTA — In a cohort of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey participants with a history of cardiovascular disease, only around 10% consumed the daily recommended levels of sodium, a speaker reported.
With an average daily intake of more than 3,000 mg of sodium per day, individuals with CVD consumed more than double the American Heart Association’s recommended daily levels, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session.
“Estimating sodium quantities in a meal can be challenging,” Elsie Nuermle Kodjoe, MD, MPH, internal medicine resident at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital in Athens, Georgia, said in a press release. “Food labels aid in dietary sodium estimation by providing sodium quantities in packaged food. Yet, adhering to a low sodium diet remains challenging even for individuals with cardiovascular disease who have a strong incentive to adhere.”
The AHA recommends sodium intake of less than 2,300 mg per day for adults without CVD and less than 1,500 mg per day for adults with CVD, according to the presentation.
For the present study, Kodjoe and colleagues evaluated the impact of socioeconomic status on sodium intake using data from 3,170 NHANES participants from 2009 to 2018. All participants were older than 20 years and had a history of CVD.
The researchers used participants’ income-to-poverty ratio and self-reported sodium intake as continuous variables in a linear regression analysis to better understand the relationship between the two.
An income-to-poverty ratio of less than 1 indicated income below the poverty level; a ratio equal to 1 indicated income equal to the poverty level; and a ratio higher than 1 indicated income greater than the poverty level.
Overall, 61% of participants were older than 65 years, 56% were men, 50% were white, 32% had an educational attainment below high school level and 29% had overweight.
The average daily calorie intake was 1,862 calories and the average daily sodium intake was 3,096 mg.
The researchers reported that approximately 89% of participants had a daily sodium intake of more than 1,500 mg.
Average sodium intake was highest among participants with an income-to-poverty ratio of more than 2 (mean intake, 3,128.7 mg/day) and participants with a college degree or higher (mean intake, 3,236.4 mg/day).
Kodjoe and colleagues noted that although increased income-to-poverty ratio was seemingly associated with increased sodium intake (P = .042), after adjusting for age, sex, gender and education, this association was not statistically significant (P = .9).
The researchers posited that the trend for slightly increased sodium intake among participants with higher education and income-to-poverty ratio was likely due to these participants being better able to report their sodium intake.
“The relatively small difference in sodium intake suggests that people with cardiovascular disease are not limiting their intake very much compared with the general population and are also consuming more than double what is recommended,” Kodjoe said in the release. “To make it easier for patients to adhere to dietary guidelines, we need to find more practical ways for the general public to estimate dietary sodium levels or perhaps consider a reduction in the sodium content of the food we consume right from the source.”
Reference:
- Majority of people with heart disease consume too much sodium. https://www.acc.org/About-ACC/Press-Releases/2024/04/01/21/46/majority-of-people-with-heart-disease-consume-too-much-sodium. Published April 2, 2024. Accessed April 2, 2024.
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Kodjoe EN, et al. Abstract 1472-213. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; April 6-8, 2024; Atlanta.
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