The effect of nutrition education sessions on energy availability, body composition, eating attitude and sports nutrition knowledge in young female endurance athletes.

None

• Targeted nutrition education can significantly improve both energy balance and sports nutrition knowledge
• Attitudes towards eating may require additional or different interventions to see significant improvements.

Introduction

• The primary aim of this study was to assess the impact of nutrition education on energy availability, body composition, eating attitudes, and sports nutrition knowledge among young female endurance athletes.
• Given the risk of inadequate energy intake among these athletes, this study uniquely investigated whether targeted educational interventions could improve these parameters and, ultimately, promote overall health in this population.

Methods

• 45 participants were allocated to an intervention group and 38 to the control group.
• The intervention group had six- weekly face-to-face 1-hour nutrition education sessions and a booklet from a dietitian. Control group received no education.
• Both groups completed measures at baseline and 6 months later, including the Low Energy Availability in Athletes Questionnaire (LEAF-Q), Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26) and Sports Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (SNKQ). Nutrient intake and energy expenditure were assessed from 3-day food and exercise logs. An electrical bioimpedance analyser measured body composition.

Results

• The LEAF-Q scores for the experimental group significantly decreased from 8.57 ± 4.36 before the intervention to 6.82 ± 3.72 after the intervention (p=0.01). This suggests that the nutrition intervention was effective in improving factors related to low energy availability in female athletes.
• A similar effect was seen in the SNKQ with scores increasing from baseline to post-intervention, 29.18± 8.60 and 35.29 ± 7.17,(p=0.01). This suggests knowledge of sports nutrition was successfully increased by the intervention.
• No differences were seen in the EAT-26 scores post-intervention (F 1,81) =0.21, p=0.65 highlighting that attitude towards eating remained the same in both groups.

Conclusion

• Female athletes often lack nutritional knowledge, increasing the risk of insufficient energy intake and nutrient deficiencies.
• This educational intervention improved nutrition knowledge and energy availability, emphasising the importance of educating young athletes for better health and performance.
• However, psychological factors related to eating attitudes remained unaddressed. Collaborating with families and coaches to reduce body shape pressures could further support athletes in maintaining appropriate diets for their sport.

• Nutrition education can effectively improve energy availability and sports nutrition knowledge in young female endurance athletes. This is crucial for enhancing their performance and long-term health. However, as attitudes towards eating may not shift as easily, addressing disordered eating or unhealthy eating behaviours requires additional, specialised strategies.

To effectively improve eating attitudes in this population a different approach may be required. For example, psychological counselling, self-regulation techniques, or mindful eating practices. This group would benefit from regular monitoring to ensure that nutrition education is not just improving knowledge, but also encouraging healthy, sustainable eating habits.

• Due to self-reporting for LEA there is a potential bias for overestimating its prevalence. Future studies could look at ways in which this bias is reduced through using for example wearable technology to assess energy expenditure, as well as food measurement apps that accurately measure portion size.
• Given the similarity in the EAT-26 score between groups, psychological methods that can be employed to shift eating attitudes should be considered to improve results in future research.