The Effects of a Nutrition Education Intervention on Sports Nutrition Knowledge during a Competitive Season in Highly Trained Adolescent Swimmers

Foo, Weelun and Faghy, Mark A. and Sparks, Andy and Newbury, Josh W. and Gough, Lewis A. (2021) The Effects of a Nutrition Education Intervention on Sports Nutrition Knowledge during a Competitive Season in Highly Trained Adolescent Swimmers. Nutrients, 13 (8). e2713. ISSN 2072-6643

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a seven-week nutrition education intervention on the sports nutrition knowledge (SNK) of highly trained UK adolescent swimmers. Fifteen national and international adolescent swimmers (males = 5; females = 10, 15.5 ± 1.1 years, 170.2 ± 7.5 cm, 60.3 ± 5.7 kg) participated in the study during seven consecutive weeks of the competitive swimming season. The participants received 30 min of nutrition education once per week in a classroom-based setting after they had completed their regular swim training. An undergraduate sports nutrition student delivered all nutrition education sessions and SNK questionnaires were administered to the participants pre- and post-intervention. The mean total SNK score improved by 8.3% (SD = 8.4%, 95% CI = 4.1–12.6; p = 0.006; ES = 1.0) following the nutrition education sessions. On an individual basis, ten swimmers significantly improved their total SNK score, whereas four swimmers did not improve, and one swimmer performed significantly worse after the intervention. Moreover, the swimmers’ knowledge of hydration improved by 22.2% (SD = 20.6%, 95% CI = 11.8–32.6, p = 0.004, ES = 1.1) over the seven-week timeframe, which was the only nutrition topic to have a significantly increased knowledge score. The current study therefore suggests that a nutrition education intervention can positively influence the SNK of highly trained adolescent swimmers.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	** From MDPI via Jisc Publications Router ** History: accepted 03-08-2021; pub-electronic 06-08-2021. ** Licence for this article: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Identification Number:	10.3390/nu13082713
Dates:	Date Event 3 August 2021 Accepted 6 August 2021 Published
Uncontrolled Keywords:	education, swimming, adolescent athletes, knowledge, performance
Subjects:	CAH03 - biological and sport sciences > CAH03-02 - sport and exercise sciences > CAH03-02-01 - sport and exercise sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences > Centre for Life and Sport Sciences (C-LASS)
SWORD Depositor:	JISC PubRouter
Depositing User:	JISC PubRouter
Date Deposited:	18 Aug 2021 10:47
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2022 16:17
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/12024

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