Secular trends in dietary sodium and potassium intakes in Chinese population,2000-2015

Objective To examine trends in dietary sodium and potassium intakes in China from 2000 to 2015 and to provide evidences for the establishment of effective strategies and measures for the prevention and control of chronic diseases.Methods We searched PubMed,China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI),WeiPu and WanFang databases,and included the published literatures providing dietary sodium and potassium intakes of Chinese population,which reported national or regional representative results with the study period between 2000 and 2015.Then we estimated the dietary sodium and potassium intakes by region,gender,and time period.Results A total of 57 articles (research participants=132 296) were included in the study,of which,52 (124 301 participants) adopted dietary recall method and 5 (n=7 995) used 24-hour urinary estimation.The results showed that there were significant gender,ethnicity,time period,and region differences in the distribution of dietary sodium intake among the participants.The participants living in the North consumed higher amount of dietary sodium than those in the South (5 692.0 mg vs.5 581.0 mg per day) and those in the West consumed higher dietary sodium (5 875.4 mg per day) than those in the Central (4 308.4 mg per day) and than those in the East (5 727.3 mg per day);the participants in rural areas had a higher sodium intake than those in the urban areas (5 978.5 mg vs.5 253.6 mg) although the regional difference in sodium intake decreased during the period.Whereas the gender difference in sodium intake increased,with an obviously higher intake among the males (6 657.5 mg per day) than among the females (5 383.8 mg per day).Higher sodium intakes were observed among the Tibetan (5 835.1 mg per day) and Kazak(4 901.3 mg per day)than among the Han participants (4 439.0 mg per day).No obvious regional and temporal differences in the potassium intake were reported by the included studies.During the first ten years of the century,dietary sodium intake decreased,but it increased slightly during the recent five years,while the change in potassium intake was small with a relatively daily intake.For the period from 2011 to 2015,the estimated average daily dietary sodium intake in Chinese people was 5 403.5 mg (approximately to 13.51 g table salt) and 5 650.9 mg (approximately to 14.13 g table salt) based on the results of 24-hour urinary estimation and dietary recall method and the estimated average daily dietary potassium intake was 1 827.9 mg based on dietary recall method,respectively.Conclusion Currently,dietary sodium intake in Chinese adult residents is two times higher than that (5 g/day) recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) but the potassium intake is only a half of that (3510 mg/day) recommended by WHO,suggesting that long-term strategies for controlling dietary sodium intake should be developed for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in Chinese population.