Adolescent Football Players’ Nutritional Knowledge Levels, Nutritional Status, and Nutritional Habits During the COVID-19 Pandemic

INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional knowledge levels, habits, nutritional status, and changing nutritional habits during the pandemic period of adolescent football players aged 14–18 years who play football in a football academy.
METHODS: 89 male football players (62 middle-adolescents and 27 late-adolescents) participated in the study. Information about general characteristics, health, nutritional habits, and knowledge level of the athletes were obtained by a questionnaire method applied by face-to-face interview. Height and weight measurements were taken by researcher. Three-day food records were taken, and dietary nutrient intakes were calculated with a software program and the data were statistically evaluated.
RESULTS: The majority of the athletes do not skip meals. When those who skipped meals were analyzed, it was found that the majority skipped the midday meal. As a reason, they stated that it coincided with the training time. According to the rate of correct answers to the questions in the nutrition knowledge level section, the success rate of the middle adolescent group was 81%, and 75% of the late adolescent group. The majority of the athletes did not change their eating habits during the pandemic period. Dietary intake of energy, carbohydrate, fiber, calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, and Vitamin B1 of the athletes were lower than recommendations, protein intake was sufficient, and fat, sodium, and phosphorus intakes were higher than recommendations. The percentages of the recommended intakes of nutrients in the eighteen age group were found to be lower than the other age groups.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Athletes generally have fat-weighted diets, and dietary intakes were insufficient in terms of some important nutrients required for growth, development, and sports performance.