Dietary Risk Factors for Hypertension among Korean Adult Men

There have been many studies indicating increased salt intake is related to elevated blood pressure (BP). Hypertension and pre-hypertension are prevalent in Korea. A national survey showed that the Korean average daily salt consumption was 12.5g, which is more than twice the current recommendation in the UK or USA. This study was performed to understand which aspects of the Korean diet contributed to high salt intake and elevated BP in Korea. The subjects consisted of 1,110 Korean adult men aged 30 to 49 years who were selected from the data of 2001 Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey, a nationwide cross sectional survey. The relationship of BP with sodium and high sodium food intakes were analyzed. After categorizing subjects according to their BP, the socio-demographic information and food and nutrients intakes were analyzed. BP increased with a larger amounts of sodium intake and the trend was significant with diastolic BP. However, the trends of BP for sodium densities of the diet were not. People with hypertension significantly tended to be older, larger, and less educated than people with normal BP. And they consumed more foods from the fats, oils & sweets group and larger amounts of discretionary sodium than normal people. The current report advocates that public health intervention, which improves the awareness of the role of salt on elevated blood pressure for the public, should be implemented in Korea.