If you are an adult with high blood pressure, consider participating in a new research study, “Development and validation of a novel tool to assess sodium intake for heart disease prevention in a multiethnic population,” by the Dept. of Human Nutrition, Food, and Animal Sciences.
Current salt consumption is the major risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and accurate measurement of dietary sodium intake is an important part of developing dietary interventions for hypertension and CVD risk, explains PhD student Leah Kaplan.
However, there are no existing tools to assess sodium intake that have been developed and validated in a multiethnic population that includes Asians, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders, who exhibit high mortality rates from cardiovascular disease.
To address this need, she and Jinan Banna have developed a brief food frequency questionnaire using dietary data from U.S. adults in the National Nutrition and Health Examination Survey (NHANES) to assess sodium intake of people living in Hawaii. This study aims to validate that questionnaire.
“We are interested to learn about the foods you eat that contain salt; or sodium,” says Jinan. “Participation is simple: fill out a short questionnaire on your sodium intake, and speak with a member of our staff to share your feedback. This will take less than an hour and be online so you can do this from a computer or mobile phone. Participation is completely voluntary, and you will receive a $20 gift card as a thank you.”
To find out more, please contact Jinan at jcbanna@hawaii.edu.