The relationship between salty taste recognition threshold, and blood pressure and lifestyle in elderly women

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between lifestyle and cognitive threshold of salty taste in elderly women. A salty taste recognition test was performed using SALSAVE^®, i.e., stick-type filter papers containing 0.2-1.6 mg/cm² NaCl. The participants were assigned to two groups based on their salty taste recognition threshold, i.e., a low (0.2 mg/cm², n=18) and a moderate to high ( ≥0.4 mg/cm², n=25) threshold group. Age, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, presence of hypertension, eating habits, and lifestyle were compared between the two groups. Age, BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and energy and salt intakes did not differ between the two groups. In addition, the rates of presence of hypertension were not different between the groups. For the questions, “Do you often perform work or exercise that engages your body?" and “Do you like physical activity?", the ratios of the answers “often" and “yes" were higher in the low threshold group than the moderate to high threshold group. These results suggested that elderly women who maintain a low salty taste threshold were physically active.