Nutrition Attitudes and Information Levels of Football Referees

Abstract

This study aims at revealing the changes in nutrition attitude and knowledge levels of football referees. 130 referees actively serving as Candidate, Provincial and Regional Referees in Izmir, Konya, Aksaray and Nigde provinces constituted the sample group of the study. The personal information form was used in obtaining the socio-demographic information, and the nutrition knowledge and attitude scale developed by Erturk (2010) was used in determination of the nutrition attitude and knowledge. The variance and homogeneity of the data were tested, “Independent Samples t Test” was used for binary comparisons, “One Vay Anowa” for differences between groups in multiple comparisons, and “Tukey” test for the determination of variation sources. The nutritional attitudes of the provincial and district referees were higher than those of the candidate referees and the nutritional information of the candidate referees were higher than the provincial and district referees and this change was statistically found to be significant (P <0.05). While no change due to the gender factor was observed, nutrition information of the referees received nutrition lessons was found to be higher than the referees who did not, and this change was statistically found to be significant (P <0.05). No difference was found in nutritional attitudes and knowledge of the referees depending on factors such as age, income, sibling, years of service, and level of education. As a result, it can be said that candidate referees who have just started their duties have more nutrition knowledge than provincial and district referees, and provincial and district referees have better nutrition attitudes than candidate referees. Football referees are thought to be an important issue in renewing their nutritional attitudes and knowledge in order to improve their performance and quality of life.