Assessing U.S. Sodium Intake through Dietary Data and Urine Biomarkers

Sodium intake is related to blood pressure, an established risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Reducing intake may save billions in United States health care dollars annually. Efforts targeting sodium reductions make accurate monitoring vital, yet limited information exists on the accuracy of the current data to assess sodium intake in the United States population. In this symposium, new findings were presented on the accuracy of estimating population 24-h urinary excretion of sodium from spot urine specimens or sodium intake from 24-h dietary recalls. Differences in accuracy by sex, BMI, and race were apparent as well as by timing of spot urine collections. Although some published equations appear promising for estimating group means, others are biased. Individual estimates of sodium intake were highly variable and adjustment for within-individual variation in intake is required for estimating population prevalence or percentiles. Estimates indicated United States sodium intake remains high.