A Glimpse of the Sports Nutrition Awareness in Spanish Basketball Players.

Ignacio Escribano-Ott,Julio Calleja-González,Juan Mielgo-Ayuso

doi:10.3390/nu14010027

Ignacio Escribano-Ott, Julio Calleja-González + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14010027

Copy DOI

Journal: Nutrients	Publication Date: Dec 22, 2021
Citations: 9	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of the Basque Country, University of Burgos

Abstract

Basketball is a team sport, with many fans and practitioners worldwide from all ages and levels. In all cases, players accumulate high levels of fatigue, and there is also limited time to recover between games or practices. In particular, nutrition plays a key role in optimizing performance and recovery. However, it is typical to observe erroneous nutritional behaviors among basketball players. It has been theorized that these behaviors are influenced by habits acquired based on the individual’s knowledge. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to conduct a descriptive research of the sports nutrition knowledge and practices in a sample of Spanish basketball players, from athletes under 18 years old (n = 69) to nonprofessional (n = 14) and professional adult players (n = 21). The sample was comprised of 49 men and 55 women. This was a transversal, cross-sectional, observational and descriptive study. All participants (n = 104) completed an anonymous online survey in order to analyze their sports nutrition knowledge and practices. In view of the obtained results, we can conclude that the knowledge of sport-specific nutrition in players under 18 years old, as well as non-professional and professional adult basketball players, is insufficient through all the categories and levels. The lack of professional support and time management difficulties were identified as some of the main barriers.

Highlights

Basketball is a team sport with many fans and practitioners worldwide [1], whose media impact can be partially explained by the impressive expansion and globalization phenomena experienced over the last 30 years [2]
With respect to the nutrient (U-18: 5.15 arbitrary units (AU) vs. Non-Pro: 5.95 AU vs. Pro: 5.12 AU: ns), significant differences in logistic regression were found between categories (Non-Pro vs. Pro vs. under 18 years old (U-18): p = 0.03) with a high effect size (d = 0.82)
The results (Figure 3) show that 83% of participants did not adjust their nutrition for the work required (U-18: 81.16% vs. Non-Pro: 78.57% vs. Pro: 76.19%: ns)

Summary

Introduction

Basketball is a team sport with many fans and practitioners worldwide [1], whose media impact can be partially explained by the impressive expansion and globalization phenomena experienced over the last 30 years [2]. Most existing knowledge refers to men’s basketball [13,14], there is an emerging trend to explore the singularity of female players (hormonal, biological and anatomical factors) due to the increased presence of women’s basketball in all categories and play level [15]. In this sense, more studies are needed, especially in the area of training [15]. The special demands of the adolescent population have attracted the interest of the scientific community [19,20]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion