以下是The New England Journal of Medicine(《新英格兰医学杂志》)网站于2010年1月20日发表的一篇原创论文的原文摘要部分，是关于低盐膳食的问题。文中提到在美国的饮食结构中盐分偏高，特别是加工食品中的盐分过高，而美国民众又较依赖这些预加工食品，这在某程度上影响了民众的健康。文中得出的结论是适当减少饮食中的盐量可以大大降低心血管疾病的发生及减少相应的医疗开支，故减少膳食盐量的摄入是改善公众健康的一个很有潜力的重要手段。

    适逢广州举办2010年亚运会，“健康亚运健康广州全民健康活动”全面深入开展，“限盐限油”是活动其中一个重要内容，通过这篇文章，我们可以学习美国在这方面的研究和经验，从而让我们更好地开展“双健”活动，实现全民健康的目标。感兴趣的朋友们可以到以下网址查看全文内容：http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/362/7/590

Projected Effect of Dietary Salt Reductions on Future Cardiovascular Disease

减少饮食中盐的摄入对将来心血管疾病的预期影响

作者：Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Ph.D., M.D., Glenn M. Chertow, M.D., M.P.H., Pamela G. Coxson, Ph.D., Andrew Moran, M.D., James M. Lightwood, Ph.D., Mark J. Pletcher, M.D., M.P.H., and Lee Goldman, M.D., M.P.H.

【原文摘要】ABSTRACT

Background   The U.S. diet is high in salt, with the majority coming from processed foods. Reducing dietary salt is a potentially important target for the improvement of public health.

Methods   We used the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Policy Model to quantify the benefits of potentially achievable, population-wide reductions in dietary salt of up to 3 g per day (1200 mg of sodium per day). We estimated the rates and costs of cardiovascular disease in subgroups defined by age, sex, and race; compared the effects of salt reduction with those of other interventions intended to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease; and determined the cost-effectiveness of salt reduction as compared with the treatment of hypertension with medications.

Results   Reducing dietary salt by 3 g per day is projected to reduce the annual number of new cases of CHD by 60,000 to 120,000, stroke by 32,000 to 66,000, and myocardial infarction by 54,000 to 99,000 and to reduce the annual number of deaths from any cause by 44,000 to 92,000. All segments of the population would benefit, with blacks benefiting proportionately more, women benefiting particularly from stroke reduction, older adults from reductions in CHD events, and younger adults from lower mortality rates. The cardiovascular benefits of reduced salt intake are on par with the benefits of population-wide reductions in tobacco use, obesity, and cholesterol levels. A regulatory intervention designed to achieve a reduction in salt intake of 3 g per day would save 194,000 to 392,000 quality-adjusted life-years and $10 billion to $24 billion in health care costs annually. Such an intervention would be cost-saving even if only a modest reduction of 1 g per day were achieved gradually between 2010 and 2019 and would be more cost-effective than using medications to lower blood pressure in all persons with hypertension.

Conclusions   Modest reductions in dietary salt could substantially reduce cardiovascular events and medical costs and should be a public health target.

Source Information:

This article (10.1056/NEJMoa0907355) was published on January 20, 2010, at NEJM.org.

Volume 362:590-599  February 18, 2010  Number 7

Address reprint requests to Dr. Bibbins-Domingo at the University of California, San Francisco, Box 1364 UCSF-SFGH, San Francisco, CA 94143-1364.