Hypertension, or high blood pressure, has been causing substantial disease burden worldwide, by increasing risk of cardiovascular diseases and mortality. Non-pharmaceutical intervention of hypertension is important. High blood pressure is associated with excessive dietary sodium intake and obesity. Sodium reduction and weight reduction are effective in lowering blood pressure and reducing risk of cardiovascular outcomes. However, these interventions are usually implemented separately in previous randomized trials.
Some studies have shown that dietary sodium intake and obesity are interrelated, that is, sodium intake increases risk of obesity and obesity in turn increases sodium intake, both of which contributing to higher blood pressure. This suggests that sodium intake and obesity may have interaction effect on blood pressure, in addition to their independent effects. Therefore, co-intervention may achieve higher effectiveness in prevention of hypertension. However, before examining this potential interaction effect in a design of randomized controlled trial, which is resources-consuming, more evidence from observational studies are warranted.
Therefore, the aim of our project is to investigate the potential interaction effect of sodium intake and obesity on blood pressure and other health outcomes using UK Biobank cohort. The findings will have significant implication for non-pharmaceutical prevention of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. We estimate the project will take 1.5-2 years.