ABSTRACT
Aim: Athletes who participate in education programs designed to improve their nutrition knowledge also get assistance for making good dietary changes that may improve their athletic performance as well as their overall health and well-being. The purpose of this comprehensive research was to investigate whether or not nutrition education programs principal to improvements in the eating habits of athletes.
Methods: A search was carried out, and the publications that provided quantitative analysis of the nutritional intake of athletes of any caliber and age ranging from 13 to 64 years old in response to a nutrition education program were included in the results. When it was practicable to do so, standardized differences, also known as result sizes, were computed for each dietary parameter.
Results: The search turned up 6327 publications, 26 of which had 985 participants (72.8 percent of whom were female), and were thus qualified for inclusion. Athletes who competed at high school (n = 4), college or higher (n = 21), and even higher levels were detailed in the investigations. The formats of the experiments either were single-arm, with a group that received just the treatment (14 studies, totaling 246 participants), or double-arm, with both an intervention and a control subject (11 experiments, totaling 694 participants). There was no provision made for any ‘sham’ or alternate intervention for the control groups. The majority of educational interventions consisted of one-on-one nutrition therapy for individuals (8/23) and in-person presentations (10/23). The technique of dietary evaluation that was used the most commonly was a record of the individual’s three-day meals that was not weighed (7/23). Diet changes were variable, despite the fact that 16 out of 23 trials (n=6 single and n=10 double) revealed a substantial change in at least one of the nutrition parameters. Due to the poor quality of studies and the diversity of the techniques used, it is impossible to draw conclusive results on the effectiveness of the general treatment or the educational modality that are better. It is important to highlight that when carbohydrate intakes “post-intervention” was evaluated, the results did not consistently reach the suggested criteria (13/19 trials).
Conclusion: In light of the initial capital investment that has been made in nutritional educational intervention with athletes, there is a need for research that is both well planned and rigorous in order to guide the development of future best practice.
Keywords: Education Programmes, Athletes nutrition, Nutrition Knowledge.