Abstract 152: Daily Dietary Sodium Intake and Advice on Dietary Sodium among Heart Failure Patients in the Community

Objective: Little is known about the sodium intake of heart failure (HF) patients in the community. We used data from the Measuring Disparities in Chronic Conditions Study to examine the receipt of advice on dietary sodium and its relationship with sodium intake among adults in a large urban county. Method: We recruited adults in King County, WA using a home-address based sample as well as sampling from health facilities using medical record billing codes for key cardiovascular conditions. Survey questions addressed past medical history as well as receipt of advice and behavior related to dietary sodium. Diet history was assessed using the National Cancer Institute Diet History Questionnaire II (DHQ) for intake in the past year. We also compared responses and estimated sodium intake for those who did and did not report a diagnosis of HF. As a sensitivity analysis, we repeated our analysis using the subset of individuals who had a medical record with an ICD9 code for HF in the previous two years. Result: Our results are based on 3357 respondents from the address-based sample and 3477 from the medical record-based sample. The DHQ was completed by 940 and 1291 of these respondents, respectively. HF was reported by 290 respondents (median age 66 years, 57% male, 6.6% black race, 85% from medical record sample, 43% with a DHQ). Among those reporting a diagnosis of HF, 61% (112 of 183) reported being advised to decrease dietary sodium and 37% (67 of 183) reported being told to buy food items labeled as low salt. These rates were 30% (755 of 2515) and 13% (337 of 2515) respectively among individuals without reported HF. Estimated daily dietary sodium intake over the prior year was lower among those with HF completing a DHQ if they reported receiving counseling (mean 2.5 vs 2.8 gm if advised to cut down on salt and 2.3 vs 2.8 gm if advised to buy low salt labeled products). However, these differences were not statistically significant. Only 65% of respondents with HF (183 of 282) said they buy low salt labeled foods and 26% (61 of 290) reported eating processed, fast, or canned food at least 5 times in the prior month. Overall mean estimated daily dietary sodium intake over the prior year was 2.7 gm for respondents both with and without HF. Results were similar for those with an ICD9 code for HF. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that a large percentage of HF patients report no receipt of medical advice to reduce dietary sodium or purchase foods labeled as low salt. Moreover, the dietary intake of salt was similar for HF patients and the general population. These results point to a need for dietary interventions in HF that are both widely adopted and can actually change behavior.