LAUSR

Objectives To test the construct validity of the Sodium Advice Score (SAS). The SAS is a tool developed to measure the quality of brief advice provided by health care providers (HCP) about dietary sodium reduction. The validation of this tool will support its implementation in a behavioural intervention trial. Methods Thirty English speaking patients with a diagnosis of hypertension and no memory impairments were recruited from a primary care clinic in Ontario, Canada. Patients were randomized to a high quality dietary sodium advice group or to a low quality dietary sodium advice group. Each intervention was delivered by a registered dietitian and took no longer than 5-7 minutes for high quality advice and 1-2 minutes for low quality advice. After the dietary sodium advice was provided the patient completed the SAS tool (< 5 minutes). Frequency, type and duration of advice was assessed by the SAS tool, which had a maximum score of 16. Therefore, the high quality advice had an expected SAS score of 16. The low quality advice had an expected SAS score of 5. Results Patients included were 71.3 ± 7.9 years old and 53% were male. Overall, 43% and 47% of patients had received previous counseling from a dietitian and family doctor, respectively. Mean daily sodium intakes of 2593 ± 1403 mg/day and 3040 ± 2283 mg/day were similar between high and low quality advice groups. The mean SAS score was 6.9 ± 3.6 (range: 2 to 14) in the low quality advice group and 14.5 ± 1.5 (range: 10 to 16) in the high quality advice group. The high quality advice scores observed were statistically similar to the expected scores (P = 0.001), however the low advice scores were not. Overall, the low quality advice score was significantly lower than the high quality advice score (P < 0.000). Conclusions The SAS tool showed evidence of construct validity as it can differentiate between high and low quality sodium reduction advice provided by HCPs. It can be used as a valid tool for measuring quality of brief sodium reduction advice by HCPs in future research. Funding Sources Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.