Salt Intake of Lactating Women as Assessed by Modified Food Weighted Records

ABSTRACT

Objective: High salt intake among lactating women can increase the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in infants/offspring. However, considering the limited salt intake data in lactating women, the aims of this study were to compare the salt intake assessed by modified food weighted records (FWR) with that estimated by 24-h urinary sodium excretion and to investigate the salt intake of lactating women.

Methods: In total, 30 lactating women aged 20–39 years who were 2 to 4 months postpartum were recruited from the cities of Tianjin and Luoyang in China. The household salt intakes of the lactating women were collected by modified FWR for 3 days. Information on the gender, age, eating behaviours and labour intensity of the family members and guests dining at home during the 3 days was recorded. Meanwhile, 24-h urine samples of lactating women were collected.

Results: The salt intakes of the lactating women estimated by modified FWR and 24-h urinary sodium excretion were 8.50 ± 5.32 g/d and 9.34±3.74 g/d (t=−1.29, P=0.207), respectively, which exceeded the WHO recommendation of 5 g/d. There was a significant correlation (r=0.628, P < 0.001) between the salt intakes assessed by the two methods. A Bland-Altman plot showed no significant mean difference between the two methods (salt intake measured by 24-h urinary sodium excretion-salt intake assessed by modified FWR=0.46 g/d, P=0.207).

Conclusions: The modified FWR is a reliable tool to assess the salt intake of lactating women. The salt intake of lactating women in China remains higher than the WHO recommendation and should be restricted through further efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• Salt intake
• lactating women
• 24-h urine collection
• 24-h urinary sodium excretion
• modified food weighted records

Conflict of interests, source of funding and authorship

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This study was supported by Danone foundation (DIC 2016-03) and Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (81330064). LJD, ZNS and WDL formulated the original research idea, designed the study and conducted the study recruitment. PZ, SYL, XTL, MCS, LL and HYL collected the samples. LJD and WDL analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed the manuscript and approved the final version submitted for publication.

Additional information

Funding

Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China and 81330064 Danone foundation DIC 2016-03.