Comparison of three methods for estimating daily individual discretionary salt intake : 24 hour recall, duplicate-portion method, and urinary lithium-labelled household salt excretion

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 53; no. 4; pp. 281 - 287
• Main Authors: MELSE-BOONSTRA, A, REXWINKEL, H, BULUX, J, SOLOMONS, N. W, WEST, C. E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basingstoke Nature Publishing 01.04.1999; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Adult; Afdeling Humane voeding; Approximation; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Children; Chlorides - urine; Coefficient of variation; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Excretion; Feeding. Feeding behavior; Female; Food; Food consumption; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Guatemala; Human Nutrition; Human Nutrition & Health; Human Nutrition (HNE); Humane Voeding; Humane Voeding & Gezondheid; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Lithium; Lithium - urine; Male; Markers; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Mothers; Recall; Reproduction (copying); Salt; Salts; Sodium Chloride, Dietary - administration & dosage; Sodium Chloride, Dietary - metabolism; Sodium Chloride, Dietary - urine; Spectrophotometry, Atomic; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems; VLAG; Guatemala; Central America; America; Radionuclide study; Human; Salt; Nutrition; Food intake; Lithium; Daily dose; Quantitative analysis
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600723

To compare methods for estimating discretionary salt intake, that is, salt added during food preparation and consumption in the home. The study was carried out in a rural Guatemalan village. Subjects were selected non-randomly, based on their willingness to cooperate. Nine mother-son dyads participated; the sons were aged 6-9 y. Three approaches for estimating the discretionary salt consumption were used: 24 h recall; collection of duplicate portions of salt; and urinary excretion of lithium during consumption of lithium-labelled household salt. Total salt intake was assessed from the excretion of chloride over 24 h. The mean discretionary salt consumption based on lithium excretion for mothers was 3.9+/-2.0 g/d (mean +/- s.d.) and for children 1.3+/-0.6 g/d. Estimates from the 24 h recalls and from the duplicate portion method were approximately twice and three times those measured with the lithium-marker technique respectively. The salt intake estimated from the recall method was associated with the lithium-marker technique for both mothers and children (Spearman correlation coefficient, 0.76 and 0.70 respectively). The mean daily coefficient of variation in consumption of discretionary salt measured by the three methods, for mothers and boys respectively, were: lithium marker, 51.7 and 43.7%; 24 h recall, 65.8 and 50.7%; and duplicate portion, 51.0 and 62.6%. We conclude that an interview method for estimating discretionary salt intake may be a reasonable approach for determining the relative rank-order in a population, especially among female food preparers themselves, but may grossly overestimate the actual intake of salt added during food preparation and consumption.