Abstract
Excessive salt intake and its impact on health is a public health problem in many regions of the world. The currently estimated dietary intake of salt among free-living adults is well above the WHO recommendations. Over the years, the number of residents in retirement homes has increased. Besides this, the nutrition of elderly people may be affected by physiological changes that occur with aging. The question is whether residents of retirement homes receive a more balanced diet, or whether the trend of excessive salt consumption continues even among institutionalised elderly people. Salt and potassium intake were assessed by measuring sodium and potassium excretion over 24 h in urine collected from a sample of residents of three retirement homes in the Goriška region, Slovenia. The average salt intake was 8.3 (2.9) g/day, which was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in men than in women (10.1 (3.1) vs. 7.3 (2.2) g/day, respectively). The estimated total daily potassium intake was 2.6 (0.6) g/day in men and 2.0 (0.8) g/day in women (mean 2.2 (0.8) g/day). The ratio of sodium to potassium was 1.53 (0.48). The salt intake among residents of retirement homes in the Goriška region, especially in men, exceeds the WHO recommended daily intake of <5 g. The mean daily potassium intake was below the WHO recommendations of 3.5 g/day.
Highlights
Excessive salt (NaCl) intake and its impact on health is a public health problem in many regions of the world [1,2,3,4]
Salt and potassium intake were assessed by measuring sodium and potassium excretion over 24 h in urine collected from a sample of residents of three retirement homes in the Goriška region, Slovenia
We investigated salt intake relative to residence, age, and body mass index (BMI)
Summary
Excessive salt (NaCl) intake and its impact on health is a public health problem in many regions of the world [1,2,3,4]. The currently estimated dietary intake of salt is about 9–12 g per day in most countries [1], which is well above the WHO recommend intake of less than 5 g of salt per day [2]. A high salt intake is the major cause of raised blood pressure, thereby increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) [3,5,6,7,8]. Dietary salt intake is associated with other diseases like gastric cancer [9,10,11,12] and obesity [13,14,15]. Sodium is an essential mineral in humans and, according to the national reference values for nutrient intake, its adequate daily intake for adults is 1.5 g (i.e., 65 mmol) [17]
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