Assessing Dietary Salt Intake and Pilot-Testing a Home-Based Intervention to Lower Salt Intake Among Filipino College Students

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To assess the knowledge, attitude, and behaviors related to dietary salt intake and develop a home-based intervention that helps lower salt intake among Filipino college students.

Design

Two-phase program development study utilizing descriptive and quasi-experimental design.

Methods

Phase 1 determined the knowledge, attitude, and behaviors alongside the frequency of dietary salt intake of a consecutive sample (n = 118). Phase 2 involved the development and pilot-testing of a home-based intervention wherein a random sample (n = 35) selected from Phase 1 joined for pilot-testing. The study was conducted from October – November 2021 and utilized valid and reliable measures to test the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of the participants.

Findings

Initial assessment showed knowledge regarding health risks of high salt intake and positive attitude toward health-promoting behaviors. Post-intervention showed improvement in attitude (p = 0.0004) and behavior (p = 0.001) related to dietary salt intake alongside health literacy (p = 0.036). There was no significant change in knowledge (p = 0.054).

Conclusion

The home-based intervention involving the use of health education materials is successful in improving dietary salt intake patterns.

Clinical Evidence

Community health nurses may utilize home-based interventions to help develop health-promoting behaviors among young adults.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.