Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health and School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London, UK.
Health Econ. 2013 Feb;22(2):243-50. doi: 10.1002/hec.2772. Epub 2012 Jan 6.
Excessive salt intake is linked to cardiovascular disease and several other health problems around the world. The UK Food Standards Agency initiated a campaign at the end of 2004 to reduce salt intake in the population. There is disagreement over whether the campaign was effective in curbing salt intake or not. We provide fresh evidence on the impact of the campaign, by using data on spot urinary sodium readings and socio-demographic variables from the Health Survey for England over 2003-2007 and combining it with food price information from the Expenditure and Food Survey. Aggregating the data into a pseudo-panel, we estimate fixed effects models to examine the trend in salt intake over the period and to deduce the heterogeneous effects of the policy on the intake of socio-demographic groups. Our results are consistent with a previous hypothesis that the campaign reduced salt intakes by approximately 10%. The impact is shown to be stronger among women than among men. Older cohorts of men show a larger response to the salt campaign compared to younger cohorts, while among women, younger cohorts respond more strongly than older cohorts.
摄入过多的盐与心血管疾病和世界上其他一些健康问题有关。英国食品标准局在 2004 年底发起了一场减少人口盐摄入量的运动。关于该运动是否有效抑制了盐的摄入量存在分歧。我们通过使用 2003-2007 年英格兰健康调查的点尿钠读数和社会人口变量的数据，并将其与支出和食品调查的食品价格信息相结合，为该运动的影响提供了新的证据。我们将数据汇总到一个伪面板中，用固定效应模型来检验这一时期盐摄入量的趋势，并推导出该政策对社会人口群体摄入的异质影响。我们的结果与之前的一个假设一致，即该运动使盐摄入量减少了约 10%。结果表明，该运动对女性的影响大于男性。与年轻群体相比，年龄较大的男性群体对盐运动的反应更大，而在女性中，年轻群体的反应比老年群体更强烈。
