Socioeconomic status predicts salt intake

Despite governments directing food manufacturers to lower the sodium content of their products, there’s one aspect of salt intake they can’t control: socioeconomic status.

Researchers have found that British people from low socioeconomic backgrounds still eat more salt than those from higher socioeconomic positions, irrespective of where they live.

Despite a national drop in salt intake over the last 10 years, the researchers say that inequalities in salt intake hardly changed between 2000 and 2011.

The researchers looked at the geographical distribution of habitual dietary salt intake in Britain and its association with manual occupations and educational attainments - both indicators of socioeconomic position and key determinants of health.

“Whilst we are pleased to record an average national reduction in salt consumption coming from food of nearly a gram per day, we are disappointed to find out that the benefits of such a program have not reached those most in need,” said Professor Francesco Cappuccio, senior author of the BMJ Open journal paper about the research and Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre.

“These results are important as people of low socioeconomic background are more likely to develop high blood pressure (hypertension) and to suffer disproportionately from strokes, heart attacks and renal failure.

“The diet of disadvantaged socioeconomic groups tends to be made up of low-quality, salt-dense, high-fat, high-calorie, unhealthy, cheap foods. We have seen a reduction in salt intake in Britain thanks to a policy that included awareness campaigns, food reformulation and monitoring. However, clearly poor households still have less healthy shopping baskets and the broad reformulation of foods high in salt has not reached them as much as we would have hoped.

“In our continued effort to reduce population salt intake towards a 6 g per day target in Britain, it is crucial to understand the reasons for these social inequalities so as to correct this gap for an equitable and cost-effective delivery of cardiovascular prevention.”