TABLE 4.

Characteristics of included consumer's knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (KAB) related to salt studies undertaken between January 2009 and November 2019 (n = 11)

Author, year, and design	Country	Study population	Method of knowledge, attitude, and behavior assessment	Summary result
AdiKa et al 45 Cross‐sectional study	Nigeria	Non‐academic employees in a university community of Bayelsa state, Nigeria	Questionnaire	Despite the ability of most of the participants (72%) to identify that high salt diet as a risk factor for hypertension, they had poor knowledge
Jessen et al 41 Cross‐sectional study	Mozambique	15‐ to 64‐year‐old Mozambicans	Dietary salt module of the STEP‐wise approach to Surveillance questionnaire	A total of 7.4% of the participants perceived that they consumed too much/far too much salt whereas 16.5% referred that they consumed foods high in salt often/always. The percentage of addition of salt or salty seasoning often/always to prepared foods or during preparation was 25.9% and 61.4%, respectively. The proportion of participants that considered that it was not important to decrease the salt contents of their diet was 8.0%, and 16.9% of the participants were not aware that too much salt in diet could have deleterious effects on health. Prevalence's of lack of behaviors for reducing salt intake ranged from 74.9% for not limiting consumption of processed foods, to 95% for not buying low salt alternatives.
Kaddumukasa et al 59 Case‐control study	Uganda	Adults older than 18 years with a history of hypertension who had a confirmed stroke at least 1 month previously at Uganda's Mulago National Referral Hospital	Questionnaire	Only 43% of the study population had basic dietary salt knowledge, 39% had adequate diet‐disease–related knowledge, and 37% had procedural knowledge (report of specific steps being taken to reduce salt consumption).
Leyvraz et al 27 Cross‐sectional study	Benin Guinea Kenya Mozambique Seychelles	25‐ to 65‐year‐old urban residents	Structured closed‐ended questionnaire	Majority (85%) of the participants knew that high salt intake can cause health problems and 91% thought that it is important to limit salt intake. Majority (92%) of participants reported that salt was added to the foods most of the time during cooking and 11% reported adding salt to meals at the table.
Magalhaes et al 25 Cross‐sectional study	Angola	Undergraduate medical students aged 17‐43 years old from the University of Agostinho Neto in Luanda	Standardized WHO questionnaire	Majority (83.7%) of participants stated that salt was always added in preparing food at home, and rarely (37.4%) or sometimes (32.5%) added to food at the table. Almost all (99.2%) participants knew that a high‐salt diet could cause health problems, and 91.1% of them recognized the importance of reduced salt in the diet. However, less than half of the participants (45.5%) were aware of their high dietary sodium intake, and most (83.9%) reported a preventative measure was the avoidance of adding salt at the table.
Menyanu et al 32 Multinational, prospective cohort study	Ghana, South Africa	Adults aged over 50 years old	A 5‐item questionnaire adapted from the WHO/PAHO protocol	Knowledge related to the adverse effects of salt on health was poor. Approximately one‐third (31.3%) of both Ghanaians and South Africans were not aware of the relationship between high salt intake and the possibility of a serious health problem. Three‐quarters (74.9%) of all respondents perceived that they consumed just the right amount of salt. Majority (91%) reported that they frequently added salt to food at home during cooking.
Muchira et al 33 Cross‐sectional study	Kenya	Rural community of Central Kenya	Questionnaire	Adding of salt during cooking (89%) and at the table (28%) was found adverse dietary patterns among the participants
Mushoriwa et al 55 Cross‐sectional study	South Africa	Female cooks and guardians from NGOs in the Eastern Cape	Voice‐recorded semi‐structured interviews	No participants were having any knowledge of the recommended daily salt intake limit nor the relationship between salt and sodium. Regarding the harm and benefit of consuming a lot of salt, almost all the participants (95%) perceived it as being harmful to one's health. 68% added discretionary salt to their food before eating and those that did not add salt during meals stated that this was because of personal preference as well as fear of the health risks associated with high salt consumption.
Newson et al 56 Longitudinal online cohort study	South Africa	Adults aged 18‐65 years old	Web‐based questionnaire on salt intake and associated behaviors	42% of participants reported that the main source of salt in their diet was added during food preparation followed by salt from salt containing foods (30% across all countries), and then by salt added at the table, and salt from out‐of‐home foods (both sources reported by 14% across all countries). In relation to recommendations, more than half of the population (55%) indicated not to know what the daily salt intake recommendations are, and only 13% of the total sample could correctly identify the salt intake recommendations. Only 10% of the population could correctly identify the recommendations and two‐thirds (66%) of the participants reported that they did not know the recommendations.
Oelke et al 60 Cross‐sectional study	Zambia	Adults ≥18 years old in Western Province	A modified version of the WHO STEP‐wise survey tool and semi‐structured interview guide supported with online table salt conversion tool used to convert the volume measurement to grams	Salt was added to food at all meals, more at lunch and dinner than breakfast, with a mean total weight of salt added to food equaling 9.33 ± 10.03 grams, nearly double the WHO recommendation with women adding significantly more salt to food than men
Queiroz et al 39 Cross‐sectional study	Mozambique	25‐ to 64‐year‐old adult workers of the Maputo Central Hospital	24‐hour dietary recall	Discretionary sodium contributed 60.1% of total dietary sodium intake, followed by sodium from processed foods (29.0%) and naturally occurring sodium (10.9%). Besides the use of salt added at the table (35% of the participants) and during cooking (96% of the participants), using stock powder when cooking or adding it to prepared food and salads was shown to be frequent in the present sample of the Mozambican population (70% of the participants).