The effectiveness of a nutrition education program designed for sodium reduction in an elderly population

The effectiveness of an eight-week nutrition education program on sodium and health in 41 elderly subjects was investigated. A four-group experimental design was used consisting of the following groups: hypertensive treatment (HT); hypertensive control (HC); normotensive treatment (NT); normotensive control (NC). Effectiveness of the program was determined by changes in knowledge, changes in urinary sodium and dietary sodium, potassium and calcium intake, and taste preference for NaCl.;The program was effective in increasing knowledge with the HT and NT having a significant gain in pre- to posttest scores, (p ;The education program was more effective in the HT group than the NT. This result indicated that elderly with a medical need for dietary modification, such as hypertension, are more likely than elderly without a medical need to change dietary habits and increase knowledge from a nutrition education program.