Salt Intake Among Women Refer to Medical Health Centers, Yazd, Iran, 2011

Excessive salt consumption is associated with the severity of arterial hypertension and various related complications such as ventricular hypertrophy. Regarding the importance of awareness of salt intake in women, this study was conducted with purpose of the estimation of salt intake.

This descriptive– analytic cross-sectional study was conducted with participation of 247 women referred to Yazd medical health centers. Sampling was done by multistage method. Daily salt intake was evaluated by measurement of urine salt and Kawasaki formula. Data was analyzed by SPSS and Student t- test, Chi –square and one way ANOVA.

Participants with mean age of 29/91±6.75 years, consumed on the average 10/09±2.97g salt per day. Daily salt intake of 4.1% (10 persons) of participants was less than 5g. Results did not show any significant association between salt intake and demographic variables including job (p=0.451), educational level (p=0.162) and husband job (p=0.178).

Considering high salt intake among participants, it is suggested designing and performing suitable educational programs based on theories and models of health education in order to reduce salt intake.