What drives athletes toward dietary supplement use: objective knowledge or self-perceived competence? Cross-sectional analysis of professional team-sport players from Southeastern Europe during the competitive season

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Abstract

Background

Issues related to knowledge of nutrition and dietary supplementation (DS) are understudied in professional athletes. This study aimed to examine the possible association between knowledge of nutrition and DS (KN&DS) and dietary supplement use (DSU) among professional athletes involved in team sports.

Methods

The sample comprised professional team-sport athletes ( N = 912, age: 22.11 ± 3.37 years, 356 females) involved in four Olympic sports: basketball ( N = 228), soccer ( N = 324), volleyball ( N = 154), and handball ( N = 206). The participants were tested by previously validated questionnaires to examine their self-perceived competence on nutrition and DS (S/KN&DS), their objectively evaluated (tested) KN&DS (O/KN&DS), sociodemographic and sport-specific variables (predictors), and DSU (criterion). Associations between the predictors and the criterion (No-DSU - Irregular-DSU - Regular-DSU) were determined by multinomial regression analysis for the total sample and separately for the studied sports.

Results

DSU was found to be less prevalent in older and more successful players. The O/KN&DS and S/KN&DS were positively correlated with DSU, but S/KN&DS was a stronger predictor of DSU than O/KN&DS. Sport-specific associations between predictors and criterion were identified, with stronger correlations in sports with a higher prevalence of DSU.

Conclusions

Due to the low correlations between O/KN&DS and S/KN&DS in the studied players, this study highlights the necessity for more frequent monitoring of biomarkers of nutritional status and its usage by coaches and practitioners to provide quantitative instruction.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12970-019-0292-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Most cited references 31

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American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Nutrition and athletic performance.

Nancy R Rodriguez, Nancy Di Marco, Susie Langley (2009)

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine that physical activity, athletic performance, and recovery from exercise are enhanced by optimal nutrition. These organizations recommend appropriate selection of foods and fluids, timing of intake, and supplement choices for optimal health and exercise performance. This updated position paper couples a rigorous, systematic, evidence-based analysis of nutrition and performance-specific literature with current scientific data related to energy needs, assessment of body composition, strategies for weight change, nutrient and fluid needs, special nutrient needs during training and competition, the use of supplements and ergogenic aids, nutrition recommendations for vegetarian athletes, and the roles and responsibilities of the sports dietitian. Energy and macronutrient needs, especially carbohydrate and protein, must be met during times of high physical activity to maintain body weight, replenish glycogen stores, and provide adequate protein to build and repair tissue. Fat intake should be sufficient to provide the essential fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins and to contribute energy for weight maintenance. Although exercise performance can be affected by body weight and composition, these physical measures should not be a criterion for sports performance and daily weigh-ins are discouraged. Adequate food and fluid should be consumed before, during, and after exercise to help maintain blood glucose concentration during exercise, maximize exercise performance, and improve recovery time. Athletes should be well hydrated before exercise and drink enough fluid during and after exercise to balance fluid losses. Sports beverages containing carbohydrates and electrolytes may be consumed before, during, and after exercise to help maintain blood glucose concentration, provide fuel for muscles, and decrease risk of dehydration and hyponatremia. Vitamin and mineral supplements are not needed if adequate energy to maintain body weight is consumed from a variety of foods. However, athletes who restrict energy intake, use severe weight-loss practices, eliminate one or more food groups from their diet, or consume unbalanced diets with low micronutrient density may require supplements. Because regulations specific to nutritional ergogenic aids are poorly enforced, they should be used with caution and only after careful product evaluation for safety, efficacy, potency, and legality. A qualified sports dietitian and, in particular, the Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics in the United States, should provide individualized nutrition direction and advice after a comprehensive nutrition assessment.

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Nutritional supplement use among college athletes and their sources of information.

Kathryn Froiland, Wanda Koszewski, Joshua Hingst … (2004)

A survey was conducted to examine the source of information and usage of nutritional supplements in 115 male and 88 female varsity athletes at a Division I university. The survey asked each athlete to define supplement, and report supplement use and type, source of information, and reasons for use. Supplement use frequencies were determined, and comparisons were made between gender and sport. Eighty-nine percent of the subjects had or were currently using nutritional supplements. Many athletes did not consider sports drinks and calorie replacement products as supplements. Females were more likely to take calcium and multivitamins, and males had significant intake for ginseng, amino acids, glutamine, hydroxy-methyl-buterate (HMB), weight gainers, whey protein, and Juven. The most frequently used supplements overall were energy drinks (73%), calorie replacement products of all types (61.4%), multivitamin (47.3%), creatine (37.2%), and vitamin C (32.4%). There was also significant supplement use noted per sport. Females were more likely to obtain information from family members regarding supplementation, and males from a store nutritionist, fellow athletes, friends, or a coach. Female athletes were more likely to take supplements for their health or because of an inadequate diet, while men reported taking supplements to improve speed and agility, strength and power, or for weight/muscle gain.

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Biomarkers in Sports and Exercise: Tracking Health, Performance, and Recovery in Athletes

Elaine C. Lee, Maren S. Fragala, Stavros A. Kavouras … (2017)

Abstract Lee, EC, Fragala, MS, Kavouras, SA, Queen, RM, Pryor, JL, and Casa, DJ. Biomarkers in sports and exercise: tracking health, performance, and recovery in athletes. J Strength Cond Res 31(10): 2920–2937, 2017—Biomarker discovery and validation is a critical aim of the medical and scientific community. Research into exercise and diet-related biomarkers aims to improve health, performance, and recovery in military personnel, athletes, and lay persons. Exercise physiology research has identified individual biomarkers for assessing health, performance, and recovery during exercise training. However, there are few recommendations for biomarker panels for tracking changes in individuals participating in physical activity and exercise training programs. Our approach was to review the current literature and recommend a collection of validated biomarkers in key categories of health, performance, and recovery that could be used for this purpose. We determined that a comprehensive performance set of biomarkers should include key markers of (a) nutrition and metabolic health, (b) hydration status, (c) muscle status, (d) endurance performance, (e) injury status and risk, and (f) inflammation. Our review will help coaches, clinical sport professionals, researchers, and athletes better understand how to comprehensively monitor physiologic changes, as they design training cycles that elicit maximal improvements in performance while minimizing overtraining and injury risk.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Damir Sekulic:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8022-7886

dado@kifst.hr

Enver Tahiraj: envertahiraj@live.com

Dora Maric: dora.maric@unipa.it

Dragana Olujic: dragana.olujic@nutricionist.hr

Antonino Bianco: antonino.bianco@unipa.it

Petra Zaletel: petra.zaletel@fsp.uni-lj.si

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Int Soc Sports Nutr

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Int Soc Sports Nutr

Title: Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1550-2783

Publication date (Electronic): 14 June 2019

Publication date PMC-release: 14 June 2019

Publication date Collection: 2019

Volume: 16

Electronic Location Identifier: 25

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0644 1675, GRID grid.38603.3e, Faculty of Kinesiology, , University of Split, ; Teslina 6, 21000 Split, Croatia

[2 ]College Universi Bardhosh, 10000 Prishtina, Kosovo

[3 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1762 5517, GRID grid.10776.37, Department of Psychological, Program in Health Promotion and Cognitive Sciences, Sport and Exercise Research Unit, Pedagogical and Education Sciences, , University of Palermo, ; 90144 Palermo, Italy

[4 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0657 4636, GRID grid.4808.4, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, , University of Zagreb, ; Zagreb, 10000 Croatia

[5 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0721 6013, GRID grid.8954.0, Faculty of Sport, , University of Ljubljana, ; Ljubljana, 1000 Slovenia

Author information

Damir Sekulic http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8022-7886

Article

Publisher ID: 292

DOI: 10.1186/s12970-019-0292-9

PMC ID: 6570862

PubMed ID: 31200782

SO-VID: 43ba3f98-fc29-4a21-bb02-0c5dded179d1

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 6 January 2019

Date accepted : 5 June 2019

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sports medicine

Keywords: dietary supplements,nutritional supplements,team sports,athletes,knowledge,effects

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Sports medicine

Keywords: dietary supplements, nutritional supplements, team sports, athletes, knowledge, effects

What drives athletes toward dietary supplement use: objective knowledge or self-perceived competence? Cross-sectional analysis of professional team-sport players from Southeastern Europe during the competitive season

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Abstract

Background

Methods

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Chinese Journal of School Health

Most cited references 31

American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Nutrition and athletic performance.

Nutritional supplement use among college athletes and their sources of information.

Biomarkers in Sports and Exercise: Tracking Health, Performance, and Recovery in Athletes

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