Table 1.

Characteristics of the Included Intervention Studies

Author, Year, Country	Study Design	Setting	Population	Intervention	Outcome Measure	Result
Structural salt reduction interventions that aim to improve the environment or settings
Moran et al (2015),10 United States	Pre‐ and post‐intervention	United States, between 2010 and 2014	Eight private New York City hospitals selected based on voluntary participation	New York City's Healthy Hospital Food Initiative (HHFI)–nutrient based standards for regular patient meals that are voluntary for private hospitals	Nutritional composition of hospital meals on the menu	Pre‐implementation, 6 of 8 hospitals exceeded the daily limits of sodium and none met all of the HHFI nutrition standardsPost‐implementation, all 8 hospitals met all key nutrient standards including decreasing sodium by 19%
Merlo et al (2015),11 United States	Repeat cross‐sectional study	United States, 2000–2014	US Federal schools	New nutrition standards in 2012 for schools requiring gradual reduction in salt content over 10 years	Salt‐lowering practices in schools	Between 2006 and 2014, there was an increase in the use of low‐sodium canned vegetables (15.6% to 51.8%), other seasonings instead of salt (39.2% to 65.1%), and low‐sodium recipes (45.8% to 68.0%) among the 55% of schools that prepared food on school premises
Janssen et al (2015),12 Netherlands	Randomized controlled trial (RCT)	Restaurant of the Future in Wageningen, 2011	81 students and employees of Wageningen University aged between 18 and 35 years, with body mass index between 18.5 and 25	Provision of reduced‐salt lunches in an experimental real‐life canteen in Wageningen to uninformed intervention participants	24‐hour urinary sodium excretion, acceptability of foods, and sensory attributes	Greater reduction in sodium excretion by 900 mg/d in the intervention group compared with the control group from baseline to week 5The liking of foods did not differ for 17 of 19 foods in the intervention and control group
Behavioral interventions to reduce population salt intake
Rubinstein et al (2015),13 Latin American countries	Parallel‐group RCT	Low‐resource urban settings in Argentina, Guatemala, and Peru	637 participants, aged 30–60 years with prehypertension	Monthly motivational counseling calls and weekly personalized texts about diet quality and physical activity for 12 months	Self‐reported sodium intake measured by a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP)	No difference in changes in salt intake of high‐sodium foods, SBP, and DBP between the intervention and control group
Anderson et al (2015),14 United States	RCT	Baltimore, Maryland, 2012–2014	40 participants, aged ≥18 years with hypertension, prehypertension, or diabetes	Multifactorial behavioral intervention emphasizing spices and herbs instead of salt to maintain lower sodium intake through group sessions, individual counseling, and contact by phone, text, or e‐mail	24‐hour urinary sodium excretion	After 20 weeks of intervention, participants had lower urinary sodium excretion than controls by −957 mg/d (P=.002)
Brown et al (2015),15 United States	Cluster RCT	Texas	760 participants, aged ≥18 years	Multicomponent, cultural, faith‐based behavior intervention to reduce stroke risk factors, which included self‐help materials, motivational calls, a newsletter, and a 2‐hour workshop on counseling for 12 months	Sodium intake measured by Block FFQ	Significantly greater reduction in salt intake in the intervention group compared with the control group, from baseline to follow‐up by −123.17 mg/d (P=.04)
Robson et al (2016),16 United States	Pilot observational study—pre‐post design	Midwest United States, 2014	6 adult‐child dyads recruited from employees at a children's medical center	Ten weekly cooking instruction sessions with a focus on nutrition, meal preparation, and behavior modification	Sodium intake based on 7‐day dietary record for adults and child	No statistically significant change in average intake of sodium at dinner after the intervention