Healthy eating and exercise relationship in female footballers

Abstract

Background and Study Aim. As a result of the recognition of women's football in the world and the growing popularity of female footballers, the healthy eating of female footballers and their status towards exercise have also become a major research topic. The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes of female soccer players towards healthy eating and their sports addiction. This study aimed to assess female footballers' attitudes toward healthy eating and exercise addiction based on age, league, position, active sports year, training status and number of exercises per week, and examine female football players' attitudes toward healthy eating and exercise addiction.
 Material and Methods. The sample group of the study consists of 167 female soccer players who are active in the Turkish women's soccer leagues 2021-2022. The data collection instruments "Personal Information Form", "Healthy Eating Attitude Scale" and "Exercise Addiction Scale" were used for the study. Independent samples t-test was used for binary comparisons for scale scores and single factorial ANOVA and Tukey HSD test for multiple comparisons.
 Results. When the study examined mean healthy eating attitude scores, there were no differences in educational status, age, and active sports year, while league, position, and weekly exercise were not found. Variables for exercise dependence were not identified.
 Conclusions. Therefore, based on the data obtained, the sample group concluded that there was a small, nonsignificant relationship between attitudes and exercise dependence on healthy eating. It can be said that female footballers may have improved their performance and development as a result of increasing their awareness of healthy eating and adoption of female footballers that exercise addiction interacts with healthy eating.