A Study on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on the usage of edible Salt among the Population in an urban Area
III. Attitude Scores:
Education of Family Head 244.413 7 34.916 7.742 0.000**
Occupation of Family Head 261.717 7 37.388 8.328 0.000**
Family Diet 64.753 1 64.753 13.812 0.000**
Socio Economic Status 268.97 4 67.243 15.059 0.000**
*Statistically Significant **highly significant
Fig 3: distribution of families based on type of edible salt used.
dISCuSSION
In this study awareness on use of iodized salt 89.7 p.c and this knowledge was acquired from sources like – printed media 41.4 p.c, electronic media 26.7 p.c and books 3.1 p.c in this study (remaining gained information from other sources). Knowledge on minimum amount of salt to be consumed daily per head was only 12.8 p.c
and knowledge on health issues caused due to Iodine deficiency was very low 33.2 p.c. Roy, et al4 study showed that 90.9 p.c knew that packet salt contains iodine. However, almost half of the respondents 51.4 p.c were wrongly aware of the presence of iodine in open salt. About 53.8 p.c were unaware about the benefits of iodine. Out of the rest 46.2 p.c of the households, who were aware about the benefits of iodine, 54.1 p.c
Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, April-June 2018, Vol.9, No. 2 89 knew about its role in the cure of goiter, for growth and
development 15.4 p.c, and 15 p.c believed that it was important for remaining healthy.
In the present study, mean amount of salt per head per day was 12.6 gram (+ 8.1 SD) which was very high compared to Chen Ji et al. study median sodium intake was 2245 mg/day, which approximated to 5.6 g of salt/
day.14 In a study by Ravi et al, mean dietary intake of sodium in men was 4.1 + 2.3 g/day and in women 3.2 + 1.7 g/day.10 In the present study daily salt intake was very much higher than the daily recommendation of <5 gram/day.
The Coverage Evaluation Survey (CES) 2009 had reported 91 per cent population covered of iodized salt in India, of which 71 per cent population consumed adequately iodized salt and another 20 per cent is consuming salt with some added iodine (<15 ppm).15
In this study only 20.4 p.c families used Iodized Salt for consumption and majority families 66.6 p.c used any other form of salt for cooking. Roy, et al study showed 62.4 p.c were using adequately iodized salt (iodine content >15 ppm) while 26.1 p.c and 11.5 p.c were using inadequately iodized because of improper storage and non-iodized salt, respectively.4
In this study 64.8 p.c families felt that they had to cut down on amount of salt they are consuming and all of them felt so to control hypertension. Pandav CS, et al.
believed iodized salt consumption -prevents goiter- 24 p.c, prevents cretinism- 4 p.c, increases growth- 9 p.c, increases intelligence - 20 p.c and is good for health- 80p.c.2
CONCluSION
A good percentage (86.4 p.c.) of families have knowledge that Iodized salt is good for consumption.
But only 20 p.c of the families were using Iodized salt for cooking & 13 p.c for pickling & hardly 0.8 p.c of them wish to change over to iodized salt. Two third of the study population don’t have specific knowledge on the health issues caused by iodine deficiency. Two third of the population responded that excess salt consumption causes Hypertension but the mean per capita daily salt consumption of the population was 12.6 + 8.1 grams, though 64.8 p.c of them wish to cut down the amount of salt consumption.
All though there is an existing law in India that only Iodized salt be used for consumption purpose and partial ban on the sale of non-iodized salt, people are still using non iodized salt for various cultural reasons.
Thus, there is an urgent need for improved emphasis on behavior change communication in the community towards Iodized salt consumption & restricted salt intake since the proper practice found to be low in the community.
lIMITATIONS
This study was based on respondent’s responses only and no interventions like urine analysis was planned.
Conflict of Interest: None Source of Funding: Self
ethical Clearance: Taken from IEC, ASRAMS.
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