Reducing salt intake can save lives worldwide, says study
Posted on: 13/Jan/2017 5:29:38 PM
A study conducted by researchers at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy has said that reducing salt intake worldwide by only ten percent could save millions of lives.
According to the World researchers, Government-led public service campaigns could massively cut mortality and disability caused by salt-triggered heart attacks and strokes for just over 10 US cents a year per person. Even without including healthcare savings, we found that a government supported, national policy to reduce population sodium intake by 10 percent over 10 years would be cost effective. We calculated what it would cost to put in place a soft regulation strategy - in coordination with industry - for 183 nations.
We took into account age and sex distributions in each country in estimating both the costs and health effects. We also tallied the number the number of years lost to poor health that could be averted - a measure called DALYs, disability-adjusted life years - with a salt-reduced diet. The study concluded that cutting salt intake over a decade would avoid about 5.8 million DALYs every year, at an average per person cost of $1.13 over the 10-year period. The cost for each year of healthy life gained was roughly the same as what is currently spent on drugs used to prevent cardiovascular disease.
