Population and study design
hypotensive, urinary incontinence, liver disease
DISORDER, THYROID DISEASE, KIDNEY DISEASE, URINARY INCONTINENCE, LIVER DISEASE, RENAL INFECTION, ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME, HEART FAILURE, HYPOTENSIVE
The participants of the study were recruited to the iMC Salt randomized controlled trial, designed to decrease salt intake inadequacy. The iMC Salt study was designed to assess the effectiveness of interventions to reduce salt consumption among consumers. The intervention consisted of using the Salt Control H equipment by the participants at home to control the salt quantity used for cooking all meals during the intervention period. Salt Control H is a dispenser that offers doses of salt according to the number of persons and the age (child or adult) of the consumers. The study was an 8-week randomized controlled trial, with follow-up to week 35. Participants were recruited among the staff of the university through the annual mandatory occupational health appointments. The exclusion criteria were pregnancy, hypotensive disorder, renal infection, kidney disease, urinary incontinence, acute coronary syndrome, severe liver disease or heart failure, member of the faculty that promotes the study (i.e., Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences), and not using salt for cooking. The primary outcome of this study was the difference in 24-h urinary sodium (as a proxy of salt intake) between the intervention and the control group from the baseline to the end of the intervention (week 8). A detailed description of the methods of the iMC Salt study has been published elsewhere [The iodine nutritional status was assessed for the baseline participants group, after validation of the collected 24-h urine samples, and additional exclusion of participants with previously diagnosed thyroid disease. A sample size of 