Original scientific paper
NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND DIETARY HABITS OF YOUNG ATHLETES' ADVISORS
Vjekoslav Cigrovski
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Kineziološki fakultet
Lorena Malec
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Kineziološki fakultet
Ivan Radman
; Institut für Sportwissenschaft der UniversitätWien
Nikola Prlenda
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Kineziološki fakultet
Tomislav Krističević
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Kineziološki fakultet
Abstract
Sports nutrition is one of the most important factors
for sport performance and success. Due to limited
financial resources young athletes' education and care
about nutrition is usually assumed by coaches and parents.
The aim of the study was to investigate nutrition-related
knowledge and dietary habits of future sports pedagogues
and young athletes' parents. Secondary aim of this study
was to investigate the impact of parental nutrition-related
knowledge and dietary habits on the quality of athlete
children's nutrition habits. The sample consisted of 108
subjects, students from Faculty of Kinesiology University
of Zagreb (39 male, 19 female; age 22.3 ± 1.65) and
parents of young athletes participating in 16 different
sports (17 male, 33 female; age 45 ± 7.4). Data were
collected using the method of written questionnaires
consisting of 40 nutrition knowledge questions. Questions
were grouped into 7 categories testing specific knowledge
on proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals,
hydration, diet and influence of nutrition on sport
performance, and were additionally classified according
to importance of a particular question for the profession of
a coach into three categories: basic knowledge, advisable
knowledge and advanced knowledge. Best overall
knowledge was noticed for the influence of nutrition on
sport performance and hydration (72.3% and 71.8%) and
the worst on proteins and fats (44.0% and 56.0%). When
answers were analyzed across the three nutritional
knowledge categories, the highest percentage of correct
answers was in the group of basic knowledge (77.4%).
However, as the level of question difficulty increased, the
number of correct answers decreased in each category,
indicating almost linear decline of knowledge (advisable
knowledge 67.5%, advanced knowledge 49.8% of correct
answers). Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (rs)
showed statistically significant correlations between
nutrition knowledge and dietary habits were noticed in
both groups (rs=0.30, rs=37; p<0.05).
Keywords
diet; athletes' parents; coaches; questionnaire
Hrčak ID:
87731
URI
Publication date:
10.7.2012.
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