Key result
A systematic review of 19 studies found a positive association between salt intake and blood pressure, while one cohort showed increased mortality with salt intake <16 g/d.
Why the study?
There is a paucity of published studies on dietary salt and health outcomes that meet methodological quality criteria for critical appraisal.
What is the association between dietary salt intake and health outcomes including blood pressure, mortality, and cardiovascular disease?
Systematic Review (n=19)
What is the association between dietary salt intake and health outcomes including blood pressure, mortality, and cardiovascular disease?
This systematic review highlights a positive association between salt intake and blood pressure in trials, but notes a lack of high-quality studies and conflicting observational data on mortality.
The Science of Salt reviews identify, summarize, and critically appraise published studies on dietary salt and health outcomes according to pre-specified methods. This review covers the period April 3 to October 30, 2018. Here, nineteen studies that fit pre-specified criteria for review and summary are included. Three of these, one prospective cohort study, one randomized controlled trial, and a post hoc analysis of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) sodium trial fulfilled the quality criteria for detailed critical appraisal, including risk of bias assessment, and commentary. Two trials demonstrated a positive association between salt intake and blood pressure. In a cohort of older Italians, increased risk of total mortality was observed with salt intake less than ~16 g/d (6300 mg sodium/d) at baseline; no association existed for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) or CVD mortality. The paucity of published studies which met our criteria for methodological quality is of concern.
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McLean et al. (2019) conducted a systematic review in Dietary salt and health outcomes (n=19). Dietary salt intake was evaluated on Health outcomes including blood pressure, total mortality, and cardiovascular disease. A systematic review of 19 studies found a positive association between salt intake and blood pressure, while one cohort showed increased mortality with salt intake <16 g/d.
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