Effects of Health Education Aimed at Continued Reduction of Table Salt Use in Households / 日本農村医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

In this study, we implemented a health education course, comprising lectures, cooking lessons, and group discussions for household cooks, that addressed the need for continued reduction of table salt intake and evaluated the effects from participants’ narratives. After the health education course, participants reported continuing to make the following efforts planning dishes that have a milder yet still delicious taste, evaluating the amount of salt, refraining from highly salty dishes, and continuing to reduce salt use when cooking. The reasons participants continued to reduce table salt use included wanting to live a healthy life, understanding how to reduce salt in dishes, learning to reduce salt consumption, learning to check the amount of salt in dishes, learning that low-salt cooking is easy, learning that unseasoned dishes can be delicious, and feeling the benefits of reduced salt intake. Participants learned that low-salt cooking is easy and how to determine the amount of salt from set values, which were effective for their continued reduction of salt intake. Moreover, our study shows that continuous support is important until individuals become accustomed to milder tastes.