Reducing dietary salt intake and preventing iodine deficiency: towards a common public health agenda

Webster, Jacqui; Land, Mary-Anne; Christoforou, Anthea; Eastman, Creswell J; Zimmerman, Michael; Campbell, Norman R C; Neal, Bruce C

doi:10.5694/mja14.00818

Topics

Health services administration

General medicine

Nutritional and metabolic diseases

Public health advocates coordinate programs to reduce salt intake and prevent iodine deficiency

After decades working in parallel, public health advocates for dietary salt reduction and those seeking to achieve the elimination of iodine-deficiency disorders through salt iodisation have harmonised their agendas.

1 George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, NSW.
2 University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
3 Sydney Thyroid Clinic, Sydney, NSW.
4 Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.
5 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders, Global Network, Zurich, Switzerland.
6 Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.

Correspondence: jwebster@georgeinstitute.org.au

Acknowledgements:

We acknowledge funding support of the World Health Organization for the meeting as well as the work of the WHO and Food Policy Division team members. Jacqui Webster was supported by a National Heart and Stroke Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship during the time of this work. Bruce Neal is supported by an Australian Research Council Futures Fellowship. Bruce Neal and Jacqui Webster are also researchers within a National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence in Obesity Policy and Food Systems (APP1041020).

Competing interests:

Bruce Neal is Chairman of the Australian Division of World Action on Salt and Health. Norman Campbell is President of the World Hypertension League.

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