Objective: This study has been performed to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice about salt usage among Pamukkale University (PAU) students.

Material and Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among PAU students. 384 students participated to the study. The first part of the questionnaire contains 17 questions that contains socio-demographic data, medical history about students and their family, the rest of the questionnaire contains 19 questions about students’ knowledge, attitude and practice about salt and iodized salt. Risky salt consumption behaviour score (RSCBS) was calculated after scoring the students’ answers to 14 questions which were considered to be as risky behavior in terms of salt consumption (frequency of eating at out-of-home places, salty food consumption frequency).

Results: The average age of the students was 22.4 ± 3.2 and 56% of them were female. 15.8% of the students were overweighted, 2.9% were obese. 26% of students were smoking, 34.2% were using alcohol. 6% of students have a chronic disease, 3.1% were hypertensive and 47.9% had a history of hypertension in their family. 57.3% of the students stated that they did not know the amount of salt that should be consumed daily, while only 21.4% knew that correctly. 50.3% of the students had the opinion that most of the salt they consume was coming from table salt, 33.6% from prepared foods and 16.1% considered that it is was naturally found in foods. 37.6% of students stated that they were checking the amount of salt in food such as cheese, butter…etc, 36.5% indicated that their daily salt consume is was high, 35.4% had a low salt intake, 60.5% wanted to reduce salt intake, 61.4% declared that they support the salt restriction in restaurants and 66.9% indicated that their choice of food would be affected with the presence of labels based on the color indicating the amount of salt in foods. Students’ average score of RSCB is 7.2 ± 2.5 and when analyzed according to the independent variables, it was found that boys have higher RSCBS than girls, students’ score who use alcohol was found to be higher than the others (p <0.05).

Conclusion: University students’ knowledge about salt consumption and related health problems are inadequate and their risky salt consumption behavior is high. Projects intended for informing university students about salt usage and salt consumption restrictive interventions are needed for students.