Heart Foundation Welcomes Salt Consumption Survey

The Heart Foundation of Jamaica (HFJ) is welcoming a salt consumption study, which was launched on Tuesday, July 13 at the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

The Jamaica Salt Consumption, Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (Salt-KAP) Study, which is being funded by the National Health Fund, will be conducted by a team of investigators from the Ministry and the Caribbean Institute for Health Research (CAIHR).

In an interview with JIS News following the launch, HFJ Executive Director, Deborah Chen, said that the Foundation is very happy with the prospect of a study, which will serve to inform policy as the country seeks to address the non-communicable disease (NCD) epidemic.

“As we know, excess dietary consumption does have health harms and one of the main concerns that we have at the Heart Foundation is that it is one of the main contributors to high blood pressure and heart disease, and public education programmes about the dangers of high salt intake are very important,” she said.

Mrs. Chen explained that the study will give the baseline data on how much salt is consumed in Jamaica, how much salt is in packaged and restaurant foods and that it will also look at the knowledge, attitude and practice of Jamaicans in relation to salt consumption.

“This will then help policymakers to decide how best to approach this very important risk factor. If we were to reduce the consumption of salt to acceptable levels, by extension it would help to reduce high blood pressure in our country,” the Executive Director explained.

She pointed to data from the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey III (JHLS III), which indicate that 31.5 per cent of Jamaica’s population has high blood pressure, and that salt is a main contributor, “so we’re very happy for this development and we hope that in short order we will have the data so that it can inform policy”.

The project will consist of analysis of data of urinary sodium from 1,091 samples collected in the JHLS III; analysis of data on sodium content of more than 6,000 packaged foods from another recently conducted study; a survey on sodium contents of foods sold in restaurants; a survey on a sample of sodium excretion of 1,200 persons, and a validation study.

The Salt – KAP Study will be led by Principal Investigator, Director of the Epidemiology Research Unit of CAIHR, Professor Trevor Ferguson.