Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices toward Salt Intake among Healthcare Professionals in the UAE

Reducing salt intake is a cost-effective strategy to lower the risks of cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and complications. Healthcare professionals (HCPs), including physicians and nurses, are critical in disseminating proper health and nutritional advice. This study assessed knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward salt consumption among HCPs. A survey-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 607 healthcare professionals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards salt consumption. The findings indicated satisfactory salt-related knowledge scores (22.3 out of 29) but poor salt-related attitudes and practice scores (1.6 out of 5) and (3.9 out of 13), respectively. Non-Arab health workers had significantly higher salt-related knowledge compared to Arabs (p=0.003), while the latter had significantly higher attitude scores (p