Levels of Awareness among School Teachers Regarding Female Athletes and Nutritional Science

Abstract

Given the concerns about the adverse physical effects of overtraining and energy intake deficiency in pubescent girls, teachers providing them with sports instructions must have accurate knowledge about and complete understanding of their physical and mental conditions as well as knowledge about nutritional science. In this study, we surveyed 60 registered dietitians (G1), 131 health and physical education teachers (G2), and 116 teachers teaching other subjects (G3) to find differences in the levels of knowledge about the female athlete triad (FAT) and nutritional science among the three groups. The participants were requested to answer 30 questions regarding six factors associated with FAT and nutrition: obesity and thinness, dietary behavior, menstruation, energy, bone, and nutritional science. The total scores for the respective factors were evaluated. There were no differences in the menstruation factor score between G1 and G2. The scores for the other factors in G2 were significantly lower than those in G1. The scores for the following four factors in G3 were significantly lower than those in G1 and G2: obesity and thinness, nutritional science, bone, and menstruation. The scores for the remaining two factors, i.e., dietary behavior and energy, were significantly lower in G3 than those in G1. In conclusion, only G3 had a lower level of awareness about the menstruation factor, whereas G2 and G3 had lower levels of awareness about the other factors.