Estimation of daily salt intake through a 24-hour urine collection in Pohang, Korea

There is an established relationship between a high salt diet and public health problems, especially hypertension and cardiovascular disease. We estimated daily salt intake in a group of adults and assessed its association with related variables in Pohang, Korea. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in 2013 with 242 adults. Urine was collected for 24 hr to estimate daily salt intake, and questionnaires about salt preference were administered. The mean daily salt intake was 9.9±4.6 g. There was no difference in salt intake between high systolic blood pressure (SBP) participants and normal SBP participants (10.5±4.7 g/d vs. 9.6±4.3 g/d, P=0.339), but high diastolic blood pressure (DBP) participants reported more salt intake than normal DBP participants (10.4±4.9 g/d vs. 9.7±4.1 g/d, P=0.049). Salt intake and body mass index demonstrated a positive correlation (P=0.001). A preference for Korean soup or stew was associated with high salt intake (P=0.038). Dietary salt intake in Korean adults is still higher than the recommendation from the World Health Organization. More efforts should be made to reduce the salt consumption of Korean adults.