Current Knowledge and Behavior towards Salt Reduction among Hong Kong Citizens: A Cross – Sectional Survey

Jasmine Cheung, Deborah Neyle and Peggy Pik Kei Chow
Additional contact information
Jasmine Cheung: School of Nursing, Tung Wah College, Hong Kong, China
Deborah Neyle: Independent Scholar, Auburn, NSW 2144, Australia
Peggy Pik Kei Chow: School of Nursing, Tung Wah College, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-13

Abstract: Excessive dietary salt intake is prevalent in the Hong Kong community. Over the last decade, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has been actively promoting community participation to reduce salt intake. The aim of this study was to investigate the current knowledge levels and behaviors relating to dietary salt intake among Hong Kong adults. This cross-sectional survey involved 426 adults in Hong Kong. The findings of this study identified areas of knowledge deficit in the recommended upper limit of daily salt intake for an adult set by World Health Organization ( n = 295, 69.2%) indicated a lack of awareness that the overconsumption of salt could cause coronary heart disease ( n = 233, 54.7%). Disengagement with salt reduction behavior, such as rarely/never checking the sodium or salt content listed on the food label ( n = 252, 59.2%) and rarely/never purchasing food labelled with low salt or no salt content ( n = 292, 68.9%), was reported. Excessive salt intake in dietary habits remains an under-recognized non-communicable disease threat by Hong Kong citizens, indicating ineffective responsive risk communication. There is a need to refine existing salt reduction initiatives to aid in making appropriate decisions regarding dietary salt intake among Hong Kong citizens.

Keywords: dietary salt; sodium; salt reduction; salt intake; community participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9572/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9572/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:18:p:9572-:d:633389

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().