Survey of nutritional knowledge, attitudes and practices and its influencing factors in elite athletes of East Azerbaijan province

The nutritional status of an athlete is a major determinant of health, fitness and sports performance, so the purpose of this study was to Investigation of nutritional knowledge, attitudes and practices and its influencing factors in elite athletes of East Azerbaijan province.

In this study, 240 male and female athletes were assessed. Method of collecting data was a KAP questionnaire with 4 parts filled out by interview. In part one, demographic characteristics and in the following sections, nutritional knowledge, attitudes and practices level of athletes was studied. One-Sample T test, Pearson correlation coefficient, multivariate Regression, Independent sample t-test and one way ANOVA were used for analysis.

The results showed that athletes had a moderate knowledge and practices but their nutritional attitudes were relatively low. Nutritional knowledge, attitudes and practices of athletes were significantly lower than other major (p<0.05). Also there was a significant positive correlation between nutritional knowledge, attitudes and practices (p<0.05). Age, sex and educational level were influencing factors on knowledge and practice.

The data indicate that nutritional status of athletes of East Azerbaijan province were moderate or relatively low. All of the athletes, in particular, men and teens need more theoretical and applied nutritional education.