Evaluation of Portuguese athletes knowledge regarding nutrition and hydration in sports

Abstract

Introduction: A balanced diet and a correct hydration are important factors to prevent injuries, improve sports performance and fatigue recovery [1–3]. However, it is recognized that athletes have poor hydration habits and dietary intakes often motivated by their limited knowledge [4,5]. Portuguese athlete’s knowledge about nutrition and hydration is far to be known and an accurate picture of their state of knowledge seems to be an important issue among professionals working directly with athletes. The aim of this study was to evaluate Portuguese athletes knowledge regarding nutrition and hydration in sports.

Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was performed in several Portuguese sports institutions. A total of 348 non-professional athletes (70% response rate) were evaluated about nutrition and hydration in sports. Self-administrated and pretested questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data, nutrition and hydration knowledge. The Ethics Committee of the School of Health Care - Polytechnic Institute of Setubal, approved the study procedure. Written consent to participate in the study was given by the participants or parents (when applicable). Descriptive statistics were carried out to express athlete’s sociodemographic information and mean nutrition and hydration scores. Chi squares tests were used to assess the association between study variables nutrition and hydration knowledge questions. Inferential statistics (Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis tests, p < 0.05) were used to examine differences between study variables.

Results: Only 8% of the athletes demonstrated good global knowledge on nutrition and hydration. The overall mean knowledge was 49.8 ± 14.9 were the highest mean knowledge area was observed on nutrition (53.1 ± 15.6) when compared with hydration (43.5 ± 21). Higher global knowledge on nutrition and hydration was only associated with oldest athletes with university educational level.

Discussion and conclusions: The study identified inadequate global knowledge among the participants were our findings revealed highest scores in nutrition section (12%) followed by hydration (6%). No data at the national level had been reported so far and this study can provide useful information on gaps and trends in athletes’ behaviour on nutrition and hydration. The results of this study clearly suggest an urgent need to developed and implement educational programs to address the knowledge amongst Portuguese sports population. In authors perspective such programs should not only focus athletes but should also involve coaches, health professionals and athletes family members.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thanks all sports institutions involved.