Provision of Salt at No Cost Does Not Affect Total Discretionary Salt Intakes among Adult Females in Ethiopia: Secondary Analysis of a Community-Based Intervention Trial.

Background: Ethiopia has near-universal access to iodized salt, and national authorities are considering adding folic acid to iodized salt to address folate insufficiency and neural tube defects. However, providing double-fortified salt containing both iodine and folic acid (DFS-IoFA) may increase discretionary salt intake. Objectives: To evaluate whether providing refined fortified salt at no cost affects discretionary salt intake among nonpregnant adult females in Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of weighed food records (WFRs) collected during a blinded, randomized controlled trial of DFS-IoFA in which participants were blinded to the salt they received. Of the 360 trial participants, 342 completed WFRs during the intervention and were included in the analysis; 143 of these participants also completed WFRs before the intervention, enabling paired comparisons, whereas the remaining 199 were assessed only during the intervention period. Discretionary salt intakes before and during the intervention were compared using paired Results: The mean observed discretionary salt intake among all participants during the intervention ( Conclusions: Providing DFS-IoFA at no cost did not affect discretionary salt intake among participants in this trial.This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06223854.