The effect of educational background music on reducing salt intake at a university canteen

Objective: It is necessary to establish population approach for healthy low-risk people compared to conventionally tailored interventions for high-risk people, considering young people's lifestyle. Particularly, in countries, such as Japan, Korea, and China, where the primary sources of salt are soups and discretionary seasonings added to homemade foods or cooked foods already at the table (i.e., soy sauce and miso), public approaches raising the individual's awareness on reducing salt intake may be effective. For instance, a song that encourages salt intake reduction consisting of interesting sound and lyrics was developed as an educational tool by the government of Nara Prefecture(1). Use of educational songs as background music (BGM) is potentially becoming a common and versatile approach in food purchasing and/or eating environments to nudge consumers toward healthier choices. Thus, we examined the effect of a dietary educational song as BGM on individual salt related behavioral modification at a university canteen. This was conducted by comparing the control and intervention periods (2). Design: The study design is a small-scale community trial that compared the control and the intervention periods. Subjects were unspecified consumers at a university canteen Interventions. We displayed visual materials at a university canteen for 5 weeks (control period) and then broadcasted BGM for another 5 weeks (intervention period). Measures of outcome were the consumption amount of discretionary seasonings, the consumption amount of soup in noodles, the consumption number of soup bowls, and the consumption number of noodles among the consumers. The changes in the four outcome indices during both periods were compared by Mann–Whitney U test. Results: Reductions in the consumption number of soup bowls and noodles were higher in the intervention period than those in the control period with statistical significance (median values: −7.5 and 5.4 per 100 rice consumers, p = 0.01; ratios to rice consumers, −0.02 and 0.10, p = 0.02, respectively). Conclusion: Using a dietary education song on salt intake as BGM may be effective in influencing individuals toward healthier menu choices rather than seasoning behavior at a university's canteen. However, these results based on representative values for unspecified users of the canteen over a short intervention period should be interpreted with caution. 1) Nara Prefecture. Tools for reduced salt. http://www.pref.nara.jp/item/1