Vital Signs: Sodium Intake Among U.S. School-Aged Children — 2009–2010

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Sodium Intake Among U.S. School-Aged Children — 2009–2010
• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Personal Author:
  Cogswell, Mary E. ; Yuan, Keming ; Gunn, Janelle P. ; Gillespie, Cathleen ; Sliwa, Sarah ; Galuska, Deborah A. ; Barrett, Jan ; Hirschman, Jay ; Moshfegh, Alanna J. ; Rhodes, Donna ; Ahuja, Jaspreet ; Pehrsson, Pamela ; Merritt, Robert ; Bowman, Barbara A.
  More +
• Description:
  Background ; A national health objective is to reduce average U.S. sodium intake to 2,300 mg daily to help prevent high blood pressure, a major cause of heart disease and stroke. Identifying common contributors to sodium intake among children can help reduction efforts. ; Methods ; Average sodium intake, sodium consumed per calorie, and proportions of sodium from food categories, place obtained, and eating occasion were estimated among 2,266 school-aged (6–18 years) participants in What We Eat in America, the dietary intake component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2009–2010. ; Results ; U.S. school-aged children consumed an estimated 3,279 mg of sodium daily with the highest total intake (3,672 mg/d) and intake per 1,000 kcal (1,681 mg) among high school–aged children. Forty-three percent of sodium came from 10 food categories: pizza, bread and rolls, cold cuts/cured meats, savory snacks, sandwiches, cheese, chicken patties/nuggets/tenders, pasta mixed dishes, Mexican mixed dishes, and soups. Sixty-five percent of sodium intake came from store foods, 13% from fast food/pizza restaurants, 5% from other restaurants, and 9% from school cafeteria foods. Among children aged 14–18 years, 16% of total sodium intake came from fast food/pizza restaurants versus 11% among those aged 6–10 years or 11–13 years (p<0.05). Among children who consumed a school meal on the day assessed, 26% of sodium intake came from school cafeteria foods. Thirty-nine percent of sodium was consumed at dinner, followed by lunch (29%), snacks (16%), and breakfast (15%). ; Implications for Public Health Practice ; Sodium intake among school-aged children is much higher than recommended. Multiple food categories, venues, meals, and snacks contribute to sodium intake among school-aged children supporting the importance of populationwide strategies to reduce sodium intake. New national nutrition standards are projected to reduce the sodium content of school meals by approximately 25%–50% by 2022. Based on this analysis, if there is no replacement from other sources, sodium intake among U.S. school-aged children will be reduced by an average of about 75–150 mg per day and about 220–440 mg on days children consume school meals.
• Subjects:
  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Fast Foods
  • Female
  • Food
  • Food Analysis
  • Food Services
  • Humans
  • Hypertension
  • Male
  More +
• Source:
  MMWR Morbidity Mortal Weekly Rep. 2014; 63(36):789-797.
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Pubmed ID:
  25211544
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4584695
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Corporate as Subject:
  Vital Signs
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  9 pdf pages
• Volume:
  63
• Issue:
  36
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/54935/cdc_54935_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 473.99 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:fe20cc1afcbadd78a7b68365ffa9709423eb1f4b6730ee5070ec1076ddb9928be3f3926bb51e8d12dd0a7540f253e95733cc7c4702f4ba4bd37f9edbabc4e5a7