A school-based education programme to reduce salt intake in children and their families (School-EduSalt): protocol of a cluster randomised controlled trial

Introduction The current salt intake is very high for children as well as adults in China. A reduction in salt intake is one of the most cost-effective measures to curb the rapidly growing disease burden attributed to blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in the Chinese population. A lower salt...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ open 2013-01, Vol.3 (7), p.e003388
Main Authors: He, Feng J, Wu, Yangfeng, Ma, Jun, Feng, Xiangxian, Wang, Haijun, Zhang, Jing, Lin, Ching-Ping, Yuan, Jianhui, Ma, Yuan, Yang, Yide, Yan, Lijing L, Jan, Stephen, Nowson, Caryl, MacGregor, Graham A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Cardiovascular disease
Cost control
Diet
Dogs
Education
Hypertension
Low income groups
Public Health
School environment
Schools
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Introduction The current salt intake is very high for children as well as adults in China. A reduction in salt intake is one of the most cost-effective measures to curb the rapidly growing disease burden attributed to blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in the Chinese population. A lower salt diet starting from childhood has the potential to prevent the development of such conditions. The School-EduSalt (School-based Education Programme to Reduce Salt) study aims to determine whether an education programme targeted at school children can lower salt intake in children and their families. Methods and analysis The study is designed as a cluster randomised controlled trial. The location is Changzhi, Shanxi province in northern China. The study population will consist of 28 primary schools with 280 children aged ≈11 years and 560 adult family members. Children in the intervention group will be educated on how to reduce salt intake. They will then be empowered to deliver the salt reduction message home to their families. In particular, children need to persuade the person who does the cooking to reduce the amount of salt used during food preparations. The duration of the intervention is one school term (≈4.5 months). The primary outcome is the difference between the intervention and the control group in the change in 24 h urinary sodium and the secondary outcome is the difference between the intervention and control group in the change of blood pressure. An economic evaluation will be undertaken to assess cost-effectiveness. Ethics and dissemination The study has been approved by The Queen Mary Research Ethics Committee (QMREC2012/81) and Peking University Health Science Centre IRB (IRB00001052-12072). Study findings will be disseminated widely through conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications. Protocol Registration Protocol Registered on ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01821144.
ISSN:2044-6055
2044-6055
DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003388