Relationship between the awareness of salt restriction and the actual salt intake in hypertensive patients

A 24-h home urine collection was conducted to estimate accurate salt intake in hypertensive outpatients. Using 24-h urinary creatinine excretion as a criterion for success, urine samples were obtained from 534 hypertensive patients. The urinary salt excretion of hypertensive outpatients ranged widely from 1.5 to 23.4 g/day (mean value 9.7+/-3.9 g/day). Urinary salt excretion was higher in males than in females (10.6+/-4.0 vs. 9.2+/-3.7g/day, p<0.01). Based on the questionnaires, the patients were divided into salt-conscious patients, or those who were careful to reduce their daily salt intake, and non-salt-conscious patients. It was found that urinary salt excretion was lower in the salt-conscious group than in the non-salt-conscious group (9.4+/-3.8 vs. 10.6+/-4.0g/day, p<0.01), but that urinary salt excretion adjusted for body weight was not significantly different between the two groups (0.16+/-0.06 vs. 0.17+/-0.07g/kg/day). Our results suggest that there was no obvious reduction in the actual salt intake in salt-conscious patients, suggesting the importance of monitoring salt intake by 24-h home urine collection and informing patients of their actual salt intake as a means of encouraging the achievement of salt restriction.