Failure of single-session dietary counseling to reduce salt intake in hypertensive patients.

Twelve ambulatory, stable, hypertensive patients were studied to determine the effect of a single, structured session of dietary counseling on daily sodium intake. The patients understood the material presented to them, as measured by testing six weeks after the original session, and they perceived themselves as having substantially reduced their daily salt intake (p less than 0.005); objective assessment of dietry sodium from measurement of 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, however, showed no significant decrease in this patient group. We conclude that single-session dietary counseling in hypertensive patients is unlikely to result in significant reductions in daily salt intake.