Jung-hoon Kim, Gyeong Eun Lim, Sunyoung Kang, Kayoung Lee, Tae-jin Park, Jinseung Kim

Department of Family Medicine, Busan Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea


Background: World health organization (WHO) recommended daily sodium intake less than 2 g. To assess the validity of WHO recommendation, we investigated the relationship between daily sodium intake and obesity.
Methods: A total of 14,694 participants aged ≥19 years who had no missing data for nutrition, chronic disease, health behavior, economic status and laboratory findings from the 5th Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES-V), which was performed from 2010 to 2012. Obesity was defined as having a body mass index of 25 kg/m2 or higher. Daily sodium intake was calculated from 24 hour recall and divided into five categories (＜2 g, 2-4 g, 4-6 g, 6-8 g, ≥8 g). The association between daily sodium intake and obesity was analyzed using multiple logistic regressions.
Results: Higher sodium intake in men had an increased risk of obesity with odds ratios (ORs) of 1.27 for 2-4 g intake (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.97-1.67), 1.40 for 4-6 g intake (95% CI, 1.07-1.85), 1.41 for 6-8 g intake (95% CI, 1.05-1.89), and 1.61 for ≥8 g intake (95% CI, 1.19-2.18), compared to men with less than 2 g intake, after adjusting for confounding factors. The P value for trend of ORs in each group for men was 0.020. In women, compared to the lesser than 2 g intake, only ≥8 g intake group had an OR of 1.28 (95% CI, 1.02-1.62) without showing significant P for trend (P value for trend＝0.221)
Conclusions: We found that sodium intake more than 2 g per day was independently related to the increased risk of obesity in men. Therefore, to minimize the risk of obesity, we suggest taking sodium less than 2 g per day.
Korean J Health Promot 2015;15(4):175-184

Keywords: Sodium, Obesity, Energy intake, World Health Organization