First direct evidence on cardiovascular cost-effectiveness effects of salt substitution

Salt substitution has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke by 14% and the number of strokes and heart attacks combined by 13%, but the new analysis shows that the resulting cost savings outweighs the cost of the intervention
.

The findings will be presented at the American College of Cardiology in Washington on April 3 by Professor Bruce Neal, executive director of the George Institute in Australia, and published in the journal Circulation
.

Senior author Thomas Lang, a senior fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, said salt substitution should now be considered a key factor in any salt reduction campaign
.

"Our research has shown that salt substitutes can reduce the risk of stroke, heart attack and premature death, but now we can say for the first time that they can also reduce healthcare costs
," he said.

"In countries where the majority of sodium in the diet comes from salt added in home cooking, salt substitution is a particularly low-cost and effective intervention that can be easily substituted
.

Globally, 3 million people die each year from excessive salt consumption (more than 5 grams per day)
.

The Salt Substitutes and Stroke Study, first published in August 2021, showed that people living in rural China had a reduced risk of stroke, heart attack and premature death
.

From April 2014 to January 2015, researchers recruited 21,000 adults with a history of stroke or poorly controlled blood pressure from 600 rural areas in five provinces of Hebei, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shanxi and Shaanxi
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Participants in the intervention village were provided free of charge enough salt substitute to meet all home cooking and food preservation requirements - about 20 grams per person per day
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Over an average of nearly 5 years of follow-up, more than 3,000 people suffered a stroke
.

In this new analysis, they weighed the costs associated with a salt replacement intervention and compared it to the cost savings associated with stroke prevention and associated quality-of-life benefits in fewer hospital admissions
.

They found that, with the lowest salt substitute price in the local market, substituting salt can save costs and be cost-effective up to 1.
5 times the current highest market price and 10.
3 times the price of the widely used salt substitute in China
.

"We have demonstrated that the use of salt substitutes in patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease is a practical and cost-effective way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease," said study author Dr.
Maoyi Tian, ​​Honorary Senior Investigator of the George China Institute
.

"The extent to which patients benefit depends on how much salt in their diet is replaced by salt substitutes, and the cost-effectiveness is largely determined by the price of salt substitutes," he added
.

"Salt replacement is now the only salt-reduction intervention with what we call 'level 1 evidence' of cost-saving protection against cardiovascular disease, and all people who plan or implement salt-reduction exercise are now All countries should take this into consideration
.

Journal Reference :

1. Ka-Chun Li, Liping Huang, Maoyi Tian, ​​Gian Luca Di Tanna, Jie Yu, Xinyi Zhang, Xuejun Yin, Yishu Liu, Zhixin Hao, Bo Zhou, Xiangxian Feng, Zhifang Li, Jianxin Zhang, Jixin Sun, Yuhong Zhang, Yi Zhao, Ruijuan Zhang, Yan Yu, Nicole Li, Lijing L.