Table 8.

Behavioural practices to reduce salt intake performed in the past month by demographic characteristics^a

Group	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
	%	%		%	%	%	%	%		%	%	%
Used spices/herbs instead of salt when cooking
Often or always do this	45.4	59.3	<0.001	53.0	47.1	48.8	55.1	60.9	<0.001	47.5	52.0	58.4	<0.001
Sometimes do this	29.1	22.5		27.5	29.7	26.2	23.3	21.9		26.1	27.1	23.5
Never or rarely do this	21.0	15.9		14.3	19.9	20.5	19.5	15.0		22.6	16.7	16.1
Does not apply to me	4.5	2.3		5.2	3.3	4.5	2.1	2.2		3.8	4.2	2.0
Avoided eating food from fast food restaurants (e.g. McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut)
Often or always do this	47.1	57.1	<0.001	44.2	47.1	47.3	51.5	67.2	<0.001	41.0	48.6	64.0	<0.001
Sometimes do this	24.0	24.0		24.7	27.5	27.5	23.2	18.2		25.8	28.3	19.6
Never or rarely do this	25.3	17.1		26.3	22.7	22.4	22.0	14.1		30.1	20.7	14.4
Does not apply to me	3.5	1.8		4.8	2.7	2.8	3.3	0.5		3.1	2.4	2.0
Avoided eating packaged, ready-to-eat foods
Often or always do this	41.5	52.2	<0.001	41.8	41.8	43.5	46.9	59.1	<0.001	37.2	46.1	56.0	<0.001
Sometimes do this	27.8	27.6		27.5	30.3	29.6	27.6	23.9		27.9	28.9	26.4
Never or rarely do this	27.5	18.6		26.3	25.4	24.1	23.2	16.2		32.3	22.2	16.2
Does not apply to me	3.2	1.6		4.4	2.5	2.8	2.3	0.8		2.6	2.8	1.4
Purchased foods labelled “no added salt”, “salt reduced” or “reduced sodium”
Often or always do this	32.6	40.8	<0.001	29.4	34.2	32.4	38.3	46.3	<0.001	32.2	35.8	42.0	0.001
Sometimes do this	32.7	29.9		32.7	33.6	34.5	30.9	25.4		31.7	32.3	29.6
Never or rarely do this	31.3	27.8		33.9	30.1	30.6	28.6	26.3		33.3	28.9	27.0
Does not apply to me	3.4	1.5		4.0	2.1	2.5	2.2	2.0		2.8	3.0	1.4
Avoided eating food from an Asian style restaurant or takeaway store (e.g. Chinese, Thai, Indian)
Often or always do this	32.4	34.6	<0.001	27.1	31.8	31.5	31.7	41.4	0.001	28.4	31.7	38.6	<0.001
Sometimes do this	26.1	32.4		31.1	30.9	27.5	30.7	29.0		27.6	31.3	29.8
Never or rarely do this	37.3	29.4		36.2	33.0	36.2	33.5	27.8		38.7	32.9	29.1
Does not apply to me	4.2	3.6		5.6	4.3	4.8	4.1	1.8		5.3	4.1	2.5
Looked at a food label to check the salt/sodium content of a food item
Often or always do this	28.3	32.0	0.014	23.5	27.9	29.4	29.4	38.5	<0.001	25.5	30.2	34.1	0.001
Sometimes do this	26.3	25.6		28.3	24.5	25.5	25.5	24.6		25.5	28.4	24.2
Never or rarely do this	42.3	40.9		43.8	44.7	43.2	43.2	35.7		46.5	38.7	40.3
Does not apply to me	3.1	1.5		4.4	2.9	1.9	1.9	1.2		2.5	2.7	1.4
When eating out, asked to have your meal prepared without salt
Often or always do this	16.3	8.6	<0.001	11.9	17.8	15.2	6.8	8.6	<0.001	10.3	9.9	14.5	<0.001
Sometimes do this	14.3	9.1		10.4	12.7	13.5	11.5	8.7		9.4	14.5	10.2
Never or rarely do this	65.8	79.6		72.5	65.4	68.5	79.4	80.5		77.0	72.2	72.9
Does not apply to me	3.6	2.7		5.2	4.1	2.8	2.3	2.2		3.3	3.4	2.4

^aAssociation between categorical variables assessed by Chi-square test. Significant findings (i.e. P < 0.05) are shown in bold