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Community and Public Health Nutrition (Poster Session)

(P20-032-24) Effects of Price Subsidy and Health Education on Sales of Reduced-Sodium Potassium-Enriched Salt: A Cluster Factorial Trial

Monday, July 1, 2024
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM CT
Location: Poster Board 526

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Anqi Ge, PhD (she/her/hers)

    lecturer
    Harbin Medical University, School of Public Health
    Harbin, Heilongjiang, China (People's Republic)

    • Co-Author(s)

  • Tengyi Wang, Master of Public Health (he/him/his)

    PhD Candidate
    Harbin Medical University, School of Public Health, China (People's Republic)

  • XY

    Xuejun Yin

    Peking Union Medical College, School of Population Medicine and Public Health, China (People's Republic)

  • XL

    Xinyan Liu

    Harbin Medical University, School of Public Health, China (People's Republic)

  • CB

    Chundan Bao

    Harbin Medical University, School of Public Health, China (People's Republic)

  • Yuze Xin, Graduate Student

    Master Candidate
    Harbin Medical University, School of Public Health
    Haerbin, China (People's Republic)

  • QL

    Qiang Li

    The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Australia

  • YW

    Yongchen Wang

    The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China (People's Republic)

  • YP

    Yonghui Pan

    The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China (People's Republic)

  • BN

    Bruce Neal, PhD

    Executive Director
    The George Institute for Global Health
    Newtown, New South Wales, Australia

  • MT

    Maoyi Tian

    Harbin Medical University, School of Public Health, China (People's Republic)

Disclosure(s):
Anqi Ge, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Tengyi Wang, Master of Public Health: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Yuze Xin, Graduate Student: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: Despite switching regular salt to reduced-sodium potassium-enriched salt substitutes can reduce blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular diseases and premature death, there are major barriers to its implementation at a scale. The scale-up of salt substitutes (SUSS) trial aims to assess the effects of health education (HE) and price subsidy (PS) interventions on the sales amount of the salt substitutes.

Methods: SUSS was a three-month, open-label, 2x2 factorial, clustered randomized controlled trial, conducted in 8 districts from Harbin city in China. 4 urban districts and 4 suburban districts were randomly assigned to receive PS, HE, both or neither. In the PS group, the price of salt substitute was subsided at the same price of the regular salt in the largest supermarket from the districts, while in the HE group, monthly health education activities were organized and weekly online-based health education were delivered via social media in two selected communities within a radius of 20 km of the supermarket. The primary outcome was comparing the monthly sales amount of the salt substitutes in bags in the participating supermarkets. In addition, questions related to the knowledge, attitude and behavior(KAB) of the salt substitutes were also collected from a random group of consumers residing in selected communities.

Results: There were 8 large supermarkets involved across the 8 communities. The HE intervention did not change sales significantly (average of 111.25 kg/month and 101.50 kg/month for urban and suburban districts in the 3 months intervention). The PS intervention increased sales to an average of 1646.70 kg/month and 162.2 kg/month for urban and suburban districts in the 3 months intervention, with most of the increase in sales occurring in the first month after the intervention was commenced. A total of 8420 community members were surveyed at the baseline and post intervention. The results showed no significant differences between the intervention and the control groups in KAB of the salt substitutes.

Conclusions: There was a clear effect of PS on sales and some evidence that effects of PS were enhanced by concomitant HE. The HE intervention alone was ineffective in this study.

Funding Sources: This study is funded by Vital Strategies and Resolve to Save Lives.