Conclusions and public health implications
EVENTS, AIDS
This study showed that the comprehensive salt reduction interventions targeting home cooks and family members were effective in terms of both urinary sodium and blood pressure reduction. The reduction of 0.9 g/day in salt intake observed in our study seems modest; however, it has substantial public health significance in terms of preventing cardiovascular events and reducing medical costs.In 2016 the Chinese government issued its “Healthy China 2030” plan and set a goal of a 20% reduction of daily salt intake in adults by 2030. Our study was a positive action to help in achieving China’s salt reduction target, and the effect was evident during the one year trial. When implementing the interventions in the real world in the long term, strong policy support and continuing input of grassroots personnel are important guarantees for the sustainability of the community based salt reduction interventions. Village doctors and neighbourhood committees are involved in mobilising residents to participate in the activities. Grassroots professional staff are responsible for giving lectures and providing guidance on salt monitoring. Integration of the salt reduction interventions into health policy and introduction of a system of incentives and assessment for the local personnel would be useful aids to implementation. Furthermore, community based interventions should be accessible to older people, who may not be familiar with the use of a smartphone. This would make the generalisation of self-monitoring of salt intake using the WeChat app challenging.To evaluate the long term effect of the interventions, we have been collecting data on urine sodium and blood pressure of the participants one and two years after the trial. We hope that these data will provide more evidence on the effect of the community based interventions in the future.In conclusion, this study provides new scientific evidence on the involvement of home cooks in salt reduction interventions and has the potential to be widely applied in China and other countries where home cooking is a major source of salt intake. Feasible public health policy is needed to facilitate the sustainability of the community based salt reduction interventions.