The relevance between knowing the salt ingredient of nutrients and consuming them: Is it better with hypertensive patients?

Abstract

Objective: Sodium restriction takes an important place in the management of patients with hypertension, but number of studies on patient compliance to sodium restriction is limited. In this study, we aimed to determine individuals’ knowledge level on sodium content of nutrients and if individuals’ compliance to sodium restriction is different from patients with hypertension.

Methods: Our study was planned as a case-control study and 223 participants were included. The case group consisted of patients with hypertension who admitted to the Cardiology Clinic of Dokuz Eylul University. The control group consisted of patients and patients’ relatives who admitted to the same clinic for other reasons and who were not recommended sodium restriction. Total compliance score was calculated by summation of compliance and noncompliance points: Compliance was scored as ‘1 point’ and noncompliance was scored as ‘0’. All data were analysed using SPSS ver.15 for Windows. Chi-square test and t-test were used for statistical analysis. Statistically significance was referred as ‘p<0.05’.

Results: Participants’ mean age was 44,5 ± 12,3. 83 of them (37,2%) were women and 110 of them (49,3%) were university graduates. 212 of all participants (95,1%) had social security. First three nutrients which participants consumed properly according to the knowledge on salt content were fruits (69,5%), mussel (62,8%) and instant soup (61,0%). First three nutrients which participants consumed improperly according to the knowledge on salt content were cheese (71%), bread (69,5%), semolina and butter (62,8%). When participants’ compliance points based on their knowledge level on salt content of nutrients and their consumption levels of these certain nutrients were considered; compliance of women (15,0 ± 4,3) was better than men (13,4 ± 4,2) (t=2,636; p=0,009). When the case group and the control group were compared; the case group (14,6 ± 4,6) was more compliant than the control group (13,4 ± 3,9) (t=2,109; p=0,036)..

Conclusion: In our study, we found that the participants’ knowledge level on salt content of nutrients and their level of compliance to consumption of these nutrients were low. But compliance scores of patients with hypertension were better than the individuals without hypertension.