NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND DIETARY HABITS AMONG COLLEGIATE ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETES IN LETRAN MANILA

Beatrix Inah  Mercado,; Bea Maris  H. Endozo,; Glady Mae  C. Gutierrez,

NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND DIETARY HABITS AMONG COLLEGIATE ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETES IN LETRAN MANILA

Bea Maris H. Endozo | Glady Mae C. Gutierrez | Beatrix Inah Mercado

Abstract:

This study focuses on the assessment of the nutritional knowledge, dietary habits, sociodemographic information and anthropometric data of the selected collegiate athletes from volleyball, taekwondo, track n’ field, table tennis, lawn tennis, swimming and badminton and collegiate non-athletes within the age bracket of 19-24 years old, and to develop nutritional guidelines for athletes, only. This present study aims to evaluate the nutrition knowledge and dietary habits of the collegiate athletes and non-athletes. Specifically, to assess the anthropometric data, compare the nutrition knowledge and dietary habits of the collegiate athletes and non-athletes and develop a nutrition guidelines booklet that focuses on nutritional needs of the collegiate athletes. The number of respondents were 148 students composed of 74 collegiate athletes (37 male and 37 female) and 74 collegiate non-athletes (37 male and 37 female). The gathered anthropometric data includes the weight, height and body mass index or BMI. A questionnaire was used to gather the data of the socio-demographic information, dietary habits and nutritional knowledge of the respondents. Non-athletes (48.19±4.01) had higher means score than athletes (46.08±4.10) which considered as statistically significant (p<0.05). Collegiate non-athletes (87.70±4.26) has the higher nutrition knowledge than athletes (83.66±8.28) which were considered has high significant difference (p<0.05). The results revealed that the collegiate non-athletes has better nutrition knowledge and dietary habits than the collegiate athletes both female and male in Letran-Manila. Proper counselling with nutrition experts and monitoring of nutrition status and dietary needs of the athletes should be done throughout the year not just prior to competition, it must be before, during and after the intense training and exercise of the athletes either by the sports nutritionist or nutrition experts of the college.