## 5 Results  
The participants' sociodemographic characteristics are shown in Table 1. Of the total of 307 participants, half were male, half were 40-59 years of age, and one-third of the participants did not have any formal education. In terms of occupation, half were homemakers, about one-fifth were farmers, and 18% were professionals (government or private). Of the total participants, 271 (78.5%) consumed raw salt. The proportion of people who consumed raw salt was higher among people with no education (85.9%), compared to people with a secondary school certificate (SSC) or anything above a secondary school certificate (64.4%), \(p\) = 0.002. Other than education, all other factors were not associated with raw salt consumption. In response to the knowledge question, \"Is less salt good for managing blood pressure\", other than sex and age, all other factors were significantly associated with the knowledge question. For example, 100% of people with SSC level education or above, compared to 69.7% without an education, agreed that less salt was good for managing blood pressure. Similarly, middle-class, employed or businesspersons had better knowledge than their counterparts. In response to \"Are you considering reducing raw salt use\", the higher level of education, male gender, and employed or businesspersons were associated with a higher proportion of intention to reduce raw salt intake. For example, 41.8% of males compared to 29.2% of females had considered reducing raw salt intake a lot (Table 2). A large majority (97%) of the participants knew that fruits and vegetables were good for their health. More than one-third of participants did not feel unhappy if they ate more carbohydrates, and 20.5% often felt unhappy if they ate more carbohydrates. A higher proportion of businesspersons claimed felt unhappy, compared to homemakers (25% vs. 19.7%, \(p=0.03\)), when eating more carbohydrates. The majority (83%) of people ate fruits irregularly or on a sessional basis. In bivariate analyses, age, gender and level of education were found to be significant predictors of fruit eating habits; 20.3% of males, compared to 9.7% of females, consumed fruit a maximum of 1-2 times a week. SES, occupation, and diabetes status were not associated with fruit consumption habits (Table 3). The proportion of people who did not consume raw salt was 21.5% (n = 66), and fruit consumption of 1-2 servings per week was 15% (n = 46). After adjusting for covariates, the proportion of people who did not consume raw salt (AOR = 4.27; 95% CI = (1.69, 10.79)), and 1-2 servings of fruit consumption per week (AOR = 4.41; 95% CI = (1.55, 12.5)) were significantly higher in people with a secondary school certificate (SSC) or education above secondary school level, compared to people with no education (Table 4). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & & **Number** & **Percentage** \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Gender} & Woman & 154 & 50.2 \\  & Man & 153 & 49.8 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Age group, years} & 30–40 & 46 & 15.0 \\  & 40–59 & 160 & 52.1 \\  & 60 or older & 101 & 32.9 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Level of Education} & No education & 99 & 32.4 \\  & Primary to high school & 148 & 48.4 \\  & Secondary School Certificate or above & 59 & 19.3 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Socioeconomic status *} & Poor or very poor & 92 & 30.1 \\  & Middle class & 214 & 69.9 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Occupation *} & Homemakers & & \\ \cline{2-4}  & Businesspersons & 24 & 8.3 \\ \cline{1-1}  & Labour & 7 & 2.4 \\ \cline{1-1}  & Farmer (Agriculture) & 59 & 20.4 \\ \cline{1-1}  & Professionals (government. or private) & 53 & 18.3 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Indicates some missing cases; for example, information for one participants’ SES was missing.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Socio-demographic characteristics of the study participants.