Table 4.
Level of agreement with attitude statements related to salt intake by demographic characteristicsa
| Attitude statement | Sex (n = 2398) | Age group (years) (n = 2398) | SES (n = 2377) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | P-value | 18–24 | 25–34 | 35–44 | 45–54 | 55–65 | P-value | Low | Mid | High | P-value | |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | ||||
| There should be laws which limit the amount of salt added to manufactured foods | |||||||||||||
| Agree or strongly agree | 56.0 | 65.4 | <0.001 | 50.6 | 57.8 | 60.3 | 64.0 | 67.4 | <0.001 | 57.8 | 60.6 | 64.6 | 0.055 |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 30.1 | 23.7 | 29.5 | 29.7 | 29.8 | 24.1 | 21.7 | 28.0 | 27.4 | 24.4 | |||
| Disagree or strongly disagree | 13.9 | 10.9 | 19.9 | 12.5 | 9.9 | 11.9 | 10.9 | 14.2 | 12.0 | 11.0 | |||
| When eating out at restaurants/cafes/pubs, I find that lower salt options are not readily available or only in limited variety | |||||||||||||
| Agree or strongly agree | 53.9 | 61.7 | <0.001 | 54.2 | 57.0 | 56.6 | 57.2 | 63.6 | 0.019 | 52.2 | 56.0 | 64.5 | <0.001 |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 38.0 | 30.5 | 36.3 | 32.2 | 35.5 | 36.0 | 30.7 | 38.9 | 36.0 | 28.4 | |||
| Disagree or strongly disagree | 8.1 | 7.8 | 9.5 | 10.8 | 7.9 | 6.8 | 5.7 | 8.9 | 8.0 | 7.1 | |||
| It is hard to understand sodium information displayed on food labels | |||||||||||||
| Agree or strongly agree | 45.8 | 47.5 | <0.001 | 41.4 | 51.4 | 46.5 | 45.1 | 46.6 | 0.023 | 45.0 | 47.1 | 48.0 | 0.019 |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 33.8 | 24.8 | 32.7 | 26.5 | 32.5 | 28.4 | 25.8 | 32.4 | 29.2 | 25.2 | |||
| Disagree or strongly disagree | 20.4 | 27.7 | 25.9 | 22.1 | 21.0 | 26.5 | 27.6 | 22.6 | 23.7 | 26.8 | |||
| My health would improve if I reduced the amount of salt in my diet | |||||||||||||
| Agree or strongly agree | 43.7 | 37.6 | <0.001 | 51.8 | 38.9 | 43.1 | 36.4 | 37.4 | <0.001 | 37.2 | 34.1 | 46.5 | <0.001 |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 42.1 | 37.8 | 27.1 | 42.2 | 37.0 | 42.2 | 42.9 | 43.0 | 44.9 | 33.7 | |||
| Disagree or strongly disagree | 14.2 | 24.6 | 21.1 | 18.9 | 19.9 | 21.4 | 19.7 | 19.8 | 21.0 | 19.8 | |||
| I believe salt needs to be added to food to make it tasty | |||||||||||||
| Agree or strongly agree | 43.2 | 33.9 | <0.001 | 38.2 | 44.7 | 41.0 | 34.1 | 32.8 | <0.001 | 36.9 | 34.9 | 41.0 | 0.010 |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 27.0 | 22.8 | 26.7 | 26.2 | 24.1 | 26.6 | 21.1 | 27.0 | 26.7 | 20.9 | |||
| Disagree or strongly disagree | 29.8 | 43.3 | 35.1 | 29.1 | 34.9 | 39.3 | 46.1 | 36.1 | 38.4 | 38.1 | |||
| Himalayan salt, pink salt, sea salt and gourmet salts are healthier than regular table salt | |||||||||||||
| Agree or strongly agree | 34.5 | 38.4 | <0.001 | 40.2 | 43.9 | 39.3 | 33.7 | 29.3 | <0.001 | 34.9 | 37.5 | 37.8 | <0.001 |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 42.4 | 32.9 | 36.7 | 34.4 | 39.1 | 39.9 | 35.2 | 44.1 | 40.9 | 29.0 | |||
| Disagree or strongly disagree | 23.1 | 28.7 | 23.1 | 21.7 | 21.6 | 26.4 | 35.5 | 21.0 | 21.6 | 33.2 | |||
aAssociation between categorical variables assessed by Chi-square test. Significant findings (i.e. P < 0.05) are shown in bold