Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of deaths in the United Arab Emirates and reducing dietary salt intake is recommended to improve the population's health.
Methods: a cross-sectional survey was given to 401 students from the University of Sharjah to investigate knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to dietary salt intake and a 24-h dietary recall among a subsample of 122 students, to assess the dietary intake of total fat, cholesterol, saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium.
Results: findings indicated low salt-related knowledge scores among students (17 out of 30), high prevalence of overweight (28%), obesity (14%), hypertension stage 1 (31%), and hypertension stage 2 (20%). The results also revealed a high percentage of students exceeding the recommended intake of total fat (48%), saturated fat (90%), trans fat (64%), and sodium (89%), and all students not meeting potassium recommendations.
Conclusions: culture-specific awareness campaigns on salt and fat intake and their association with health are needed.
Keywords: attitude; dietary fat; dietary salt; knowledge; practice; students.