DIETARY HABITS AND ESTIMATION OF SALT INTAKE IN CROATIAN SCHOOLCHILDREN

Sa？etak High salt intake is the major cause of hypertension and accordingly leads to cardiovascular diseases. The intake of the so-called “hidden salt” through some food stuffs is an important public health issue. This cross-sectional population based study examined dietary habits and evaluated the salt intake through daily snacking among Croatian schoolchildren. The study included 1077 schoolchildren, aged 8.6±1.2 years (range 6 to 11 years old), 48.9% boys and 51.1% girls. The self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection on dietary habits and laboratory determination of salt content in snack meals was performed. Study revealed several unhealthy dietary habits in studied population such as skipping breakfast (32.0% of children), unhealthy snacking (51.6% of children) and consumption of away-from-home meals (46.7% of children) whereas excessive salt intake through unhealthy snacking could pose a serious public health issue in a studied population. In order to improve dietary habits of this population, targeted dietary public health interventions are needed