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Effect of modest salt reduction on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized trials. Implications for public health

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 16, pages 761–770 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Two recent meta-analyses of randomised salt reduction trials have concluded that there is little purpose in reducing salt intake in the general population. However, the authors, as with other previous meta-analyses, included trials of very short duration (eg 1 week or less) and trials of acute salt loading followed by abrupt reductions to very low salt intake (eg from 20 to less than 1 g of salt/day). These acute salt loading and salt depletion experiments are known to increase sympathetic tone, and with salt depletion cause a rise in renin release and, thereby, plasma angiotensin II. These trials are not appropriate, therefore, for helping to inform public health policy, which is for a more modest reduction in salt intake, ie, from a usual intake of ≈10 to ≈5 g of salt per day over a more prolonged period of time. We carried out a meta-analysis to assess the effect of a modest salt reduction on blood pressure. Our data sources were MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane library, CINAHL, and the reference lists of original and review articles. We included randomised trials with a modest reduction in salt intake and a duration of 4 or more weeks. Meta-analysis, meta-regression, and funnel plots were performed. A total of 17 trials in hypertensives (n=734) and 11 trials in normotensives (n=2220) were included in our study. The median reduction in 24-h urinary sodium excretion was 78 mmol (equivalent to 4.6 g of salt/day) in hypertensives and 74 mmol in normotensives. The pooled estimates of blood pressure fall were 4.96/2.73±0.40/0.24 mmHg in hypertensives (P<0.001 for both systolic and diastolic) and 2.03/0.97±0.27/0.21 mmHg in normotensives (P<0.001 for both systolic and diastolic). Weighted linear regression analyses showed a dose response between the change in urinary sodium and blood pressure. A reduction of 100 mmol/day (6 g of salt) in salt intake predicted a fall in blood pressure of 7.11/3.88 mmHg (P<0.001 for both systolic and diastolic) in hypertensives and 3.57/1.66 mmHg in normotensive individuals (systolic: P<0.001; diastolic: P<0.05). Our results demonstrate that a modest reduction in salt intake for a duration of 4 or more weeks does have a significant and, from a population viewpoint, important effect on blood pressure in both hypertensive and normotensive individuals. This meta-analysis strongly supports other evidence for a modest and long-term reduction in population salt intake, and would be predicted to reduce stroke deaths immediately by ≈14% and coronary deaths by ≈9% in hypertensives, and reduce stroke and coronary deaths by ≈6 and ≈4%, in normotensives, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Lawrence Ruddock for independently extracting data to check our own analysis. We also thank the authors who kindly provided the data necessary for the computation of some of the variables included in the analysis.

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  1. Blood Pressure Unit, St George's Hospital Medical School, London, UK

    F J He & G A MacGregor

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Correspondence to G A MacGregor.

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He, F., MacGregor, G. Effect of modest salt reduction on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized trials. Implications for public health. J Hum Hypertens 16, 761–770 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001459

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