Dietary sodium intake in a multiethnic Asian population of healthy participants and chronic kidney disease patients

INTRODUCTION Clinical practice guidelines recommend dietary sodium restriction in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Compliance with this recommendation in a multiethnic Asian population is not clear. This study assessed the urinary sodium excretion profile of a multiethnic Asian population to estimate the population's dietary sodium intake. METHODS Data on the urinary sodium excretion of 335 participants were obtained from the Asian Kidney Disease Study and Singapore Kidney Function Study. Standard statistical tests and linear regression were used to assess the association between various continuous variables and sodium excretion. RESULTS Our study cohort consisted of 335 participants (232 with CKD, 103 healthy) - 51.0% were male; 38.5% were Chinese, 29.6% were Malay, 23.6% were Indian; and 57.3% were hypertensive. The mean age was 53.5 +/- 15.1 years and mean urinary sodium excretion was 124.9 +/- 68.3 mmol/day. The mean blood pressure of the healthy participants was lower than that of the patients with CKD (p < 0.001). Patients with CKD stages 1-3 excreted an average of > 100 mmol sodium/day. Overall, 40.1% patients with CKD excreted < 100 mmol sodium/day. Indians had higher urinary sodium excretion than the Chinese (p = 0.016) and Malays (p = 0.002). The distribution of urinary sodium excretion in the healthy participants (37.9% excreted < 100 mmol sodium/ day) was similar to that seen in the patients with CKD. CONCLUSION Although patients with CKD stages 4-5 achieved sodium restriction, healthy persons and patients with early-stage CKD need to increase their efforts in reducing their sodium intake, especially for patients of Indian ethnicity.