The habitual additional sodium intake among hypertensive patients visiting a tertiary health-care center, Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Background: Hypertension prevalence is related to dietary sodium chloride intake. People are consuming much more sodium than is physiologically necessary. The consumption of processed food in urban India has led to a prevalence of 24%–30% of hypertension. The people have a special liking of such type of foods. This study aimed at assessing consumption of sodium among the study subjects to compare habitual additional consumption of sodium among hypertensive and normotensive patients and to find its associate factors impacting hypertension. Materials and Methods: The hospital based, cross-sectional study was conducted on patients attending the outpatient department of general medicine. The sample size was 520 patients. Habitual additional intake of each patient was assessed by a food frequency table. Results: As the age advances, the proportion of hypertensive patients increases (P 25 was found among 11.92% normotensives and among 25.38% hypertensives (P