Article Text
PDF
Abstract
Objectives To examine sodium and potassium urinary excretion by socioeconomic status (SES), discretionary salt use habits and dietary sources of sodium and potassium in a sample of Australian schoolchildren.
Design Cross-sectional study.
Setting Primary schools located in Victoria, Australia.
Participants 666 of 780 children aged 4–12 years who participated in the Salt and Other Nutrients in Children study returned a complete 24-hour urine collection.
Primary and secondary outcome measures 24-hour urine collection for the measurement of sodium and potassium excretion and 24-hour dietary recall for the assessment of food sources. Parent and child reported use of discretionary salt. SES defined by parental highest level of education.
Results Participants were 9.3 years (95% CI 9.0 to 9.6) of age and 55% were boys. Mean urinary sodium and potassium excretion was 103 (95% CI 99 to 108) mmol/day (salt equivalent 6.1 g/day) and 47 (95% CI 45 to 49) mmol/day, respectively. Mean molar Na:K ratio was 2.4 (95% CI 2.3 to 2.5). 72% of children exceeded the age-specific upper level for sodium intake. After adjustment for age, sex and day of urine collection, children from a low socioeconomic background excreted 10.0 (95% CI 17.8 to 2.1) mmol/day more sodium than those of high socioeconomic background (p=0.04). The major sources of sodium were bread (14.8%), mixed cereal-based dishes (9.9%) and processed meat (8.5%). The major sources of potassium were dairy milk (11.5%), potatoes (7.1%) and fruit/vegetable juice (5.4%). Core foods provided 55.3% of dietary sodium and 75.5% of potassium while discretionary foods provided 44.7% and 24.5%, respectively.
Conclusions For most children, sodium intake exceeds dietary recommendations and there is some indication that children of lower socioeconomic background have the highest intakes. Children are consuming about two times more sodium than potassium. To improve sodium and potassium intakes in schoolchildren, product reformulation of lower salt core foods combined with strategies that seek to reduce the consumption of discretionary foods are required.
- sodium, dietary
- sodium chloride, dietary
- potassium
- child
- Australia
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Contributors The authors’ responsibilities were as follows: CAG, LJR, KJC, FJH and CAN designed research; CAG performed statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript and is guarantor of the paper; JRB was involved in data collection and cleaning and edited and reviewed the manuscript; KB managed and entered dietary data and edited and reviewed the manuscript; LJR, KJC, FJH and CAN helped with data interpretation, revision of manuscript and provided significant consultation. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding This work was supported by a Heart Foundation of Australia Grant-in-Aid (G10M5021) and a Helen MacPherson Smith Trust Fund Project Grant (6002). During this work, CAG was supported by a Heart Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship (PP08M4074) and a Heart Foundation of Australia Postdoctoral Fellowship (Award ID: 100155). During this work, JRB was supported by a National Heart Foundation of Australia Postgraduate Scholarship (Award ID: PP11M6172).
Competing interests All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: CAG received financial support in the form of a postgraduate scholarship and postdoctoral fellowship from the Heart Foundation, Australia, for the submitted work; JRB received financial support in the form of a postgraduate scholarship from the Heart Foundation, Australia. CAN has received research funds from Meat & Livestock Australia; National Health and Medical Research Council, Wicking Foundation, National Heart Foundation, Australia, Helen MacPherson Smith Trust and Red Cross Blood Bank. These payments are unrelated to the submitted work. LJR has received research funds from Meat & Livestock Australia. These payments are unrelated to the submitted work. CAG and CAN are members of World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) and Australian Division of World Action on Salt and Health (AWASH). FJH is a member of Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) and WASH. CASH, WASH and AWASH are non-profit charitable organisations and no authors receive any financial support. KJC and KB had no support from any organisation for the submitted work and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.
Patient consent Guardian consent obtained.
Ethics approval Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Data and materials are stored at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University. The data will not be shared as this was not approved by the Deakin University Human Ethics Advisory Group or study participants.