Reductions in Cardiovascular Disease Projected from Modest Reductions in Dietary Salt
By K. Bibbins‐Domingo, Glenn M. Chertow, P. Coxson, A. Moran, J. Lightwood, M. Pletcher, L. Goldman. New England Journal of Medicine, 2010
1,197 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Background The US diet is high in salt, with the majority coming from processed foods. Reducing dietary salt is an important potential public health target. Methods We used the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Policy Model to quantify the benefits of potentially achievable population-wide reductions in dietary salt of up to 3 gm/day (1200 mg/day of sodium). We estimated cardiovascular disease rates and costs in age, sex, and race subgroups, compared salt reduction with other interventions to reduce cardiovascular risk, and determined the cost-effectiveness of salt reduction compared with drug treatment of hypertension. Results Reducing salt by 3 gm/day is projected to result in 60,000–120,000 fewer new CHD cases, 32,000–66,000 fewer new strokes, 54,000–99,000 fewer myocardial infarctions, and 44,000–92,000 fewer deaths from any cause annually. All segments of the population would benefit, with blacks benefiting proportionately more, women benefiting particularly from stroke reduction, older adults from reductions in CHD events, and younger adults from lower mortality rates. The cardiovascular benefits from lower salt are on par with benefits from reducing tobacco, obesity, or cholesterol. A regulatory intervention designed to achieve 3 gm/day salt reduction would save 194,000–392,000 quality-adjusted life-years and $10–24 billion in healthcare costs annually. Such an intervention would be cost-saving even if only a modest 1 gm/day reduction were achieved gradually over the decade from 2010–2019 and would be more cost-effective than treating all hypertensive individuals with medications. Conclusions Modest reduction in dietary salt could substantially reduce cardiovascular events and medical costs and should be a public health target.
Subfields: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine, Nutrition and Dietetics, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5e941bf6ed355a283cb2835ab6335875e77070c4
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
In Nutrition and Dietetics
In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Citations in the corpus
- Alternative dietary indices both strongly predict risk of chronic disease. (2012, background): “by the USDA (60), may prevent a substantial number of new cases of CHD (33).”
- The 2015 Canadian Hypertension Education Program recommendations for blood pressure measurement, diagnosis, assessment of risk, prevention, and treatment of hypertension. (2013, background): “The effect of reduced dietary salt on CVD events remains unclear [347–350], although the long-term follow-up of the Trials of Hypertension Prevention (TOHP) trial showed a reduced salt intake to be associated with lower risk of CV events [351].”
- Gastric Cancer: Descriptive Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Screening, and Prevention (2014, background): “ing the incidence of gastric cancer (142), but also for lowering the risk of othermajor diseases, including stroke and myocardial infarction (163).”
- Forecasting the Future of Stroke in the United States: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association (2013, background): “Reducing salt intake has also been proposed as a strategy to reduce stroke risk.(84) Indeed, meaningful reductions in salt consumption could be achieved rapidly through policy changes.”
- Red meat consumption and mortality: results from 2 prospective cohort studies. (2012, background): “The high sodium content may increase CVD risk through its effect on blood pressure.(22,23) Nitrites and nitrates are frequently used in the preservation of processed meats, and blood nitrite concentrations have been related to endothelial dysfunction(24) and impaired insulin response in adults.”