Usefulness of a salt check sheet for elementary school and junior high school children

There are no known methods to easily evaluate the dietary salt intake of children. We hypothesized that the salt check sheet, for which validity has been confirmed in both hypertensive outpatients and in the general population, can be used to assess dietary salt intake in children. We enrolled 188 healthy schoolchildren (mean age 11.2 ± 1.1 years, 53.2% boys) and asked them to answer both the salt check sheet and a brief self-administered dietary history questionnaire for Japanese schoolchildren aged 6-18 years (BDHQ15y). The mean total salt check-sheet score was 12.7 ± 4.0 points (range: 4-24 points), and the estimated daily salt intake from the BDHQ15y was 12.1 ± 3.7 g (range: 4.7-27.2 g). The total check-sheet score was significantly positively correlated with the estimated daily salt intake from the BDHQ15y (r = 0.408, P < 0.001). Thirty-one study participants were assigned to the "low" salt group (total score on the salt check sheet was 0-8 points), 78 participants to the "medium" salt group (9-13 points), and 79 participants to the "high and very high" salt group (≥14 points), and a comparison estimating daily salt intake from the BDHQ15y among the three groups was performed. Daily salt-intake levels tended to increase as the group of total check-sheet scores increased: "low" vs "medium" vs "high and very high" salt group levels were 9.5 ± 3.1 vs 11.6 vs 13.5 ± 3.9, respectively (P < 0.001). This demonstrates that the salt check sheet is a useful tool to easily assess dietary salt intake in children.