Rationale, design, and baseline characteristics of the Salt Substitute in India Study (SSiIS): The protocol for a double- blinded, randomized-controlled trial 1 2,3 2,4 2,5 2,6,7 2 Sudhir Raj Thout , Jie Yu ,Maoyi Tian Mark D. Huffman ,Clare Arnott , Qiang Li 1 2 2 2,8 Praveen Devarsettyy ,Claire Johnson Simone Pettigrew , Bruce Neal ,Jason H. Y. Wu 1 1The George Institute for Global Health India, Punjagutta, Hyderabad, India 2The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 3Department of Cardiology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China 4The George Institute for Global Health at Peking University Health Science Centre, Beijing, China 5Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA 6Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia 7Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia 8Imperial College London, London, UK Correspondence Jie Yu MD, The George Institute for Global Health, Level 5, 1 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia, Department of Cardiology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China. Emails:
[email protected] Funding information The study was supported by the George Institute for Global Health Seed Grant, grant number 0141030. Abstract Reduced-sodium, added-potassium salt substitutes have favorable effects on blood pressure, but have not been tested in India. The Salt Substitute in India Study (SSiIS) is a double-blinded, randomized- controlled trial designed to investigate the effects of reduced-sodium, added-potassium salt substitution to replace usual cooking salt use and blood pressure (BP) among hypertensive patients in rural India. The primary objective is to assess effects on systolic blood pressure at 3 months.