Attitudes and personality related to salt intake.

A predominantly middle-class female sample of British adults completed questionnaires designed to estimate salt intake and to assess attitudes towards adding table salt to food, along with Cattell's 16PF personality inventory. The attitudes questions were based on the approach suggested by Fishbein and Ajzen, and proved to be good predictors of table salt use. The person's own feeling about table salt use was a better predictor than perceived pressure from other people. Beliefs about adding table salt were closely related to the person's attitude, but only beliefs about taste (not beliefs about health consequences) predicted usage. Beliefs about pressure from doctors and nutritionists/dietitians, but not family, were also related to usage. There was lower usage and more negative attitudes in respondents under 35 years old. Two of the second-order personality factors from the 16PF correlated with salt intake, but appeared to act through attitudes: tough poise (i.e. given to rapid action with insufficient thought) correlated positively with estimated table and cooking salt use; anxiety correlated positively with cooking use, with salt consumed in foods and with estimated total intake. The results suggest that any attempt to reduce salt intake might best be directed at satisfying taste, and not exclusively at augmenting anxiety about the health consequences of salt intake.