Higher Daily Sodium Intake Linked to Heart Failure Risk

WEDNESDAY, April 1, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Greater dietary sodium intake is associated with a higher risk for new heart failure (HF) among at-risk individuals, according to a study published online March 18 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Advances.Leonie Dupuis, M.D., from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues examined the association between dietary sodium intake and incident HF among individuals at high risk for HF. The analysis included 25,306 participants (median age, 54 years; 63 percent female; 69 percent Black; 87 percent with <$25k annual income) in the Southern Community Cohort Study. Participants did not have HF and had Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services coverage at enrollment.The researchers found that during a median follow-up of 9.8 years, each 1,000-mg/day greater sodium intake was associated with an 8 percent higher risk for incident HF, independent of sociodemographic factors, diet quality, calories, physical activity, and hyperlipidemia. When further adjusting for hypertension, body mass index, sleep, or coronary artery disease, results persisted. The association between dietary sodium and incident HF was also seen among individuals with diabetes (hazard ratio, 1.08). Cutting sodium intake to a maximum of 4,000 mg/day could eliminate 6.6 percent of incident HF over 10 years."Our findings that greater dietary sodium intake significantly associates with higher risk of incident HF and that even modest reduction in sodium consumption may substantially reduce the burden of HF in this high-risk population motivates implementation of multilevel public health strategies to achieve lower dietary sodium intake in high-risk resource-limited communities," the authors write.One author disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Higher Daily Sodium Intake Linked to Heart Failure Risk

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