Altered dietary salt for preventing pre-eclampsia

Evidence Summaries

Level of Evidence = C

Advice to reduce salt intake in pregnancy appears not to prevent pre-eclampsia.

A Cochrane review ¹ included two studies with a total of 603 subjects. Both compared advice to reduce dietary salt intake with advice to continue a normal diet. The confidence intervals were wide and crossed the no-effect line for all the reported outcomes, including pre-eclampsia (relative risk 1.11, 95% confidence interval 0.46 to 2.66).

References

1. Duley L, Henderson-Smart D, Meher S. Altered dietary salt for preventing pre-eclampsia, and its complications. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2005 Oct 19;(4):CD005548. [PMID:16235411]