Urinary Sodium Excretion and Obesity Markers among Bangladeshi Adult Population: Pooled Data from Three Cohort Studies

We evaluated the relationship of urinary sodium excretion with a conditional mean, 10th and 90th percentiles of body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference among 10,034 person-visits of Bangladeshi population. We fitted linear mixed models with participant-level random intercept and restricted maximum likelihood estimation for conditional mean models; and quantile mixed-effect models with participant-level random intercept and Laplace estimation for 10th and 90th percentiles models. For each 100 mmol/24 h increase in urinary sodium excretion, participants had a 0.10 kg/m(2) (95% CI: 0.00, 0.10) increase in the mean; a 0.39 kg/m(2) (95% CI: 0.23, 0.54) increase in the 10th percentile; and a 0.59 kg/m(2) (95% CI: 0.39, 0.78) increase in the 90th percentile of BMI. For each 100 mmol/24 h increase in urinary sodium excretion, participants had a 0.20 cm (95% CI: 0.10, 0.30) increase in mean; a 0.18 cm (95% CI: -0.03, 0.40) change in the 10th percentile; and a 0.23 cm (95% CI: 0.03, 0.43) increase in the 90th percentile of waist circumference. We found a modest association between urine sodium and conditional mean of BMI and waist circumference. The magnitude of associations between urine sodium and the 10th and 90th percentile BMI distributions were higher compared to the conditional mean models, suggesting high sodium intake could be more detrimental to underweight and obese participants.

Automated summary

We evaluated the relationship between urinary sodium excretion and BMI and waist circumference in the Bangladeshi population, finding a modest association. The association was stronger in the 10th and 90th percentile of BMI, suggesting a potentially greater impact of high sodium intake on underweight and obese individuals.