Assessment of nutrition knowledge in division I college athletes

Abstract

Objective

Assess nutrition knowledge of Division I college athletes.

Participants

128 student-athletes (n = 70 female) from eight sports completed the survey in June 2018. METHODS: The survey by Calella et al (2017) was used to assess both general and sport nutrition knowledge.

Results

Cases with more than 20% of responses missing were excluded (n = 3). Overall average score was 57.6% ± 18.6%. Females scored significantly (p < 0.001) better than the males (66.5% ± 16.4% versus 46.2% ± 14.7%). Participants were divided into revenue (football, ice hockey, male’s basketball, women’s basketball; n = 63) and non-revenue sports (field hockey, golf, rowing, soccer; n = 62) to address differences in knowledge between sports with greater versus lesser nutrition resource access. Revenue sports scored significantly (p < 0.001) worse than non-revenue sports (45.7% ± 15.2% versus 69.7% ± 13.1%).

Conclusions

Athletes appear to have low nutrition knowledge, putting them at risk for inappropriate dietary choices that could decrease ability to optimally perform and increase risk of injury.

Keywords:

• college athletes
• nutrition knowledge

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Michigan State University College of Education through a Summer Research Development Fellowship.