Estimates of Dietary Sodium Consumption in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

•Although accurate estimation of dietary sodium intake is challenging, it remains a key component of the overall dietary assessment in HF.•In the clinical setting, evaluation of sodium intake is important for assessing adherence to a sodium-restricted diet and for providing individualized nutritional counseling.•In the research setting, assessment of sodium intake is crucial to evaluate outcomes after a dietary intervention, and the highest quality methods should be used.•Cellphone apps and other novel technologies have potential for improving the assessment of sodium intake, but additional study is needed.

Estimating dietary sodium intake is a key component of dietary assessment in the clinical setting of HF to effectively implement appropriate dietary interventions for sodium reduction and monitor adherence to the dietary treatment. In a research setting, assessment of sodium intake is crucial to an essential methodology to evaluate outcomes after a dietary or behavioral intervention. Current available sodium intake assessment methods include 24-hour urine collection, spot urine collections, multiple day food records, food recalls, and food frequency questionnaires. However, these methods have inherent limitations that make assessment of sodium intake challenging, and the utility of traditional methods may be questionable for estimating sodium intake in patients with HF. Thus, there are remaining questions about how to best assess dietary sodium intake in this patient population, and there is a need to identify a reliable method to assess and monitor sodium intake in the research and clinical setting of HF. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current methods for sodium intake assessment, addresses the challenges for its accurate evaluation, and highlights the relevance of applying the highest-quality measurement methods in the research setting to minimize the risk of biased data.