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20982

Nutritional Status and Dietary Practices of Female Athletes

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Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status and the feeding practices of female athletes practicing sport at the first class level. The sample of was taken from three sports clubs in Alexandria and included 124 athletes practicing handball, basketball or volleyball. Each athlete was privately interviewed using a pre-coded questionnaire to collect data on her educational level and her source of advice regarding athletic nutrition. Data was collected on the exact composition of the diet consumed before competition which were analyzed using the Egyptian food composition table. The diet was classified into balanced diet, unbalanced diet, high carbohydrate or high protein diets. Athletes were questioned about the time of consuming diet before competition and about fluid intake before, during and after the sport event. The athletes were also requested to provide information on the type of supplement frequently consumed. The nutritional status of the athletes was assessed using a set of anthropometric measurements including body weight, height, waist and hip circumferences. BMI was calculated.The results show that anthropometric measurements were within normal range. The team coach and older players were the main sources of nutrition advice. Only 22.6% of the athletes consumed a balanced diet and a similar proportion consumed a high carbohydrate diet. Meals were consumed by 42.8% of the players less than 3 hours before competition. Fluids were omitted by 33.1% and 50.8% of the athletes before and during competition. Nutritional supplements were taken by 73.4% of the players, performance enhancing supplement was most commonly used particularly by university graduates. The results confirm that poor dietary practices are quite prevalent and necessitate the inclusion of a nutritionist in the training team.

DOI

10.21608/jhiph.2008.20982

Keywords

Nutritional Status, Dietary Practices, Female athletes

Authors

First Name

Sally

Last Name

Ezzat

MiddleName

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Affiliation

Fellow of Nutrition; Students' Hospital Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

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Volume

38

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

4140

Issue Date

2008-10-01

Receive Date

2018-12-08

Publish Date

2008-10-01

Page Start

871

Page End

886

Print ISSN

2357-0601

Online ISSN

2357-061X

Link

https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/article_20982.html

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https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=20982

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10

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of High Institute of Public Health

Publication Link

https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Nutritional Status and Dietary Practices of Female Athletes

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023