Readiness for behavioral change of discretionary salt intake among women in Tehran, Iran

Abstract

14Background 15 It is vitally important to take into consideration women's role in dietary pattern choice and family 16 food management. Since women's readiness for dietary behavioral change can be one of the most 17 effective fundamental measures for preventing chronic diseases in developing countries, the 18 present study is aimed to determine the readiness for behavioral change in voluntary salt intake as 19 well as its determinants among women living in Tehran. 20Materials and methods 21 The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 561 women referring to the women care units 22 across city of Tehran. In this regard, demographic information of the participants was collected. 23The self-administered questionnaire included assessment of nutrition-related knowledge on salt 24 intake and its association with diseases, discretionary salt intake, stages of change, and self-25 efficacy of women. In addition, the logistic regression test was used to determine the predictors of 26 women's readiness for behavioral change in voluntary salt intake. 27 Results 2840% women had someone in the family who had such a limitation (salt intake-limited exposure 29 group), while 81.6% always or often added salt to their foods. Moreover, one-third of the 2 30 participants were in the stage of pre-contemplation and 41.2% were in the stage of preparation for 31 reducing salt intake. Stage of change increased with an increase in the self-efficacy score (r=0.42, 32 p<0.001). Self-efficacy and salt intake-limited exposure were the two most important determinants 33 of the women's readiness for behavioral change in voluntary salt intake, respectively: (OR=1.1 34 95% CI: 1.06-1.14 p<0.001; OR=1.58, 95% CI: 1.03-2.42 p<0.038) 35 Conclusions 36Results of the present study showed that increased self-efficacy is associated with higher levels 37 of behavioral change among women. Since self-efficacy is very important for initiating and 38 maintaining the behavioral change, women's empowerment for reducing salt intake necessitates 39 putting the emphasis on increased self-efficacy as well as community-based nutritional 40 interventions. 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 3 55 Introduction 56 57 Behavior change is a process which occurs in individuals with different levels of motivation and 58 readiness for change [1-3]. Changing health-related behaviors can significantly affect some of the 59 most important causes of death and diseases. Behavior plays a pivotal role in health. Evidence 60 suggests that different behavioral patterns are deeply rooted in sociocultural conditions and depend 61 on cultural background. Currently, behavior change interventions have a high potential for 62 changing the current pattern of diseases. It is difficult to change the genetic pre disposition to 63 diseases and social conditions, at least in the short term [4]. 64 Studies which assess individuals' readiness to change health behaviors reveal that over one-third 65 of people are at the pre-contemplation stage and few (8-14%) at the preparation...

Incentives to Reduce Salt Intake Resulting From Women’s Experiences: A Qualitative Study

“…Participants of the present research mentioned contextual and motivating support as the main factors involved in behavioral change. This is consistent with the findings reported by Ji and Cappuccio 20 and Kholdi et al 21 Here, the participants mentioned one's desire to get more information and acquire self-care skills among the facilitating factors of reduced salt intake. Having the required level of awareness and skills was also mentioned by de-Brito-Ashurst et al 13 as a facilitating factor.…”

National food policies in the Islamic Republic of Iran aimed at control and prevention of noncommunicable diseases

“…Therefore, to achieve further reduction in salt intake, consumers' awareness of their salt consumption should be promoted. About 50-60% of daily salt intake is from salt that is directly added to food by the consumer (38), which is currently equal to 3.44-4.12 g/day in the Islamic Republic of Iran.…”