A recent study published in The Lancet reported that while low sodium diets help in improving the quality of life for people with heart failure, they did not reduce clinical events such as hospitalization or emergency room visits. 

Researchers in the study reported that reducing sodium intake in the diet can benefit people with heart failure. However, adverse clinical outcomes such as hospitalization do not get affected by the reduction of sodium in diet. In the study, participants were randomly placed into two groups, the intervention group with a low sodium diet (less than 1500 mg of sodium daily) and the control group receiving the standard of care of the region they were located in. The results showed that the hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and all causes of death were not reduced for participants in the low sodium diet group compared to the control group. However, a moderate benefit on quality of life and in the NYHA scale classification in the intervention group was seen. 

The study results were summarized by Dr. Paz as, “Following a low salt diet did not reduce death or trips to the hospital in people with congestive heart failure. Despite this fact, there still was a signal for benefit in some key endpoints favoring a low salt diet, including functional assessments.” (Do low salt diets improve outcomes in heart failure? (medicalnewstoday.com))