The Study
Self-Care and All-Cause Mortality in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure.
This study found that people with heart failure who said they ate less salt were more likely to die over time, but it doesn’t prove that salt caused the deaths — maybe people who felt sicker just ate less salt. It’s like noticing that people who wear hats more often get sunburned — but that doesn’t mean hats cause sunburn.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Doctors thought eating less salt would help heart failure patients live longer, but this study found the opposite: those who said they ate little salt were more likely to die.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 552 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — it suggests that self-reported low salt intake may be a sign of other health problems, not a protective behavior.
- 2221 out of 559 patients died over 5.5 years.
- 3Those who reported low salt intake had a 47% higher chance of dying.
- 4Self-care habits did not affect survival.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
JACC. Heart failure
Year
2016
Authors
Dionne Kessing, J. Denollet, J. Widdershoven, N. Kupper
Related Content
Claims (3)
People who eat less than 2,300 mg of salt per day for a long time are 25% less likely to die from any cause than people who eat more than 3,600 mg of salt per day.
For people with long-term heart failure, how well they take care of themselves at home doesn’t seem to make a difference in whether they live longer or not.
People with heart failure who say they eat very little salt actually have a higher chance of dying sooner — even after accounting for how sick they are or their age and income — which makes scientists wonder if people are just bad at remembering or reporting what they eat.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.