Determinants of dietary salt intake in adults: A protocol for Scoping Review

Objective The objective of this scoping review is to methodically review the current literature and identify the factors/determinants of dietary salt consumption in adults. Introduction High dietary salt intake has been identified as a risk factor for non-communicable diseases and conditions. Despite continuous and rigorous efforts, dietary salt intake still remain above the recommended adult daily dose of 5g, both locally and globally. This indicates existence of unidentified or unaddressed behavioural factors that diminish efficiency of salt reduction efforts targeted towards public. Inclusion Criteria This review will include global literature dealing with factors associated with dietary salt intake in adults. Qualitative, quantitative and ecological studies on behavioural, psychosocial and environmental factors associated with awareness regarding dietary salt intake and barrier to its reduction will be considered. Studies published only in English language, without any limits on date of publication will be considered for this review. Methods A comprehensive search across databases namely, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, JSTOR, ERIC, DOAJ and OATD will be carried out to retrieve and identify relevant literature. Two reviewers will screen the titles followed by abstracts and subsequently full-length texts according to the inclusion and exclusion criterion, removing unrelated studies and finally compiling and extracting information from chosen studies in data extraction forms. Descriptive statistics will be used to represent the data. Thematic analysis of extracted data using deductive approach will be conducted.