Abstract

Background

Previous research on Uganda's poststroke population revealed that their level of dietary salt knowledge did not lead to healthier consumption choices.

Purpose

Identify barriers and motivators for healthy dietary behaviors and evaluate the understanding of widely accepted salt regulation mechanisms among poststroke patients in Uganda.

Methods

Convergent parallel mixed methods triangulation design comprised a cross-sectional survey (n = 81) and 8 focus group discussions with 7-10 poststroke participants in each group. We assessed participant characteristics and obtained insights into their salt consumption attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge. Qualitative responses were analyzed using an inductive approach with thematic analytic procedures. Relationships between healthy dietary salt compliance, dietary salt knowledge, and participant characteristics were assessed using logistic regression analyses.

Results

Healthy dietary salt consumption behaviors were associated with basic salt knowledge (P <  .0001), but no association was found between compliance and salt disease-related knowledge (P = .314). Only 20% and 7% obtained health-related salt knowledge from their health facility and educational sources, respectively, whereas 44% obtained this information from media personalities; 92% of participants had no understanding of nutrition labels, and only 25% of the study population consumed potash—an inexpensive salt substitute that is both rich in potassium and low in sodium.

Conclusion

One barrier to healthy dietary consumption choices among Uganda's stroke survivors is a lack of credible disease-related information. Improving health-care provider stroke-related dietary knowledge in Uganda and encouraging the use of potash as a salt substitute would help reduce hypertension and thereby lower the risk of stroke.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2017

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases, v. 26, issue 12, p. 2935-2942.

© 2017 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This manuscript version is made available under the CC‐BY‐NC‐ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

The document available for download is the author's post-peer-review final draft of the article.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2017.07.016

Funding Information

This research was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institute of Health (Award R25NS080968) and the Fogarty International Centre of the National Institutes of Health (Award VUMC41965) in a joint collaboration with Makerere University, College of Health Sciences.

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