Dept. of Primary Care and Public Health Sciences, King's College London, Capital House, 42 Weston Street, London SE1 3QD, UK.
Appetite. 2013 Nov;70:104-11. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2013.06.095. Epub 2013 Jul 11.
This study investigated UK consumers' perceptions, knowledge and understanding of the salt they consume in their diet and the significance of this for their health. Ten focus groups were conducted in two UK cities (Norwich and London) with a total of 72 participants. Most participants were unaware of the advised salt guidelines (6g per day), or what this equated to within their diet, mainly because they were unclear about how much salt they consumed, given that much is 'hidden' in pre-prepared foods. However, participants were aware of the link between high salt intake and certain negative health associations, though they were unsure about the precise connection. As such, consumption practices were largely driven by habit and lifestyle choices, rather than health considerations. The paper concludes by suggesting that further salt awareness campaigns are needed and that these should be made more relevant to consumers by addressing specific knowledge deficits (such as the presence of 'hidden' salt), although given the intractable nature of human behaviour, more direct efforts to lower salt content (e.g. through manufacturing changes) might be required.
本研究调查了英国消费者对其饮食中盐摄入量的认知、知识和理解，以及这对他们健康的意义。在英国的两个城市（诺维奇和伦敦）进行了 10 个焦点小组，共有 72 名参与者。大多数参与者不知道建议的盐摄入量指南（每天 6 克），或者不知道这相当于他们饮食中的多少盐，主要是因为他们不清楚自己摄入了多少盐，因为很多盐都“隐藏”在预制食品中。然而，参与者意识到高盐摄入量与某些负面健康关联之间存在联系，但他们不确定确切的联系。因此，消费行为主要受习惯和生活方式选择驱动，而不是健康因素。本文最后建议需要开展更多的盐意识宣传活动，并且这些活动应该通过解决特定的知识缺陷（例如“隐藏”盐的存在）更贴近消费者，尽管鉴于人类行为的顽固性，可能需要更直接的努力来降低盐含量（例如通过制造工艺的改变）。
