Determinants of Nutrition Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Adolescent Sports Trainee: A Cross-sectional Study in Bangladesh
Abstract Background Nutrition is an important predictor of an athlete’s performance. It is more important for particularly those athletes who are in the growing stage (adolescents). This study aimed to assess their current level of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of nutrition and to predict potential factor impact on the level of these KAP. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescent trainee athletes selected conveniently from 11 sports departments (e.g. cricket, football, hockey etc.) of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP). A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Anthropometric measurements (e.g. height, weight, BMI, BF %) were taken using appropriate methods. The data were analyzed using R (v3.6.1) and Python Jupyter Notebook. Descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and logistic regression were used to determine the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Results A total number of 260 participants were enrolled in this study. Among them, 86% were male. Their mean age was 15.50 ± 1.83 ranging from 12–19 years. More than half of the participants had good nutrition knowledge (n = 149, 57.3%). Fifty-six percent participants had negative attitude (n = 146) and 42.3% (n = 110) had poor level of practices regarding nutrition. Age (p = 0.007), gender (p = 0.004) and duration of sports training (p = 0.004) of participants were significantly associated with knowledge, while only age and BMI were significantly associated with practices. Athletes with less body fat were more likely to have good nutrition practice behavior (AOR 0.895; 95% CI 0.83, 0.96; p < 0.05) and nutrition knowledge was positively associated with nutrition practice (AOR 2.335; 95% CI 1.405, 3.88; p = 0.001). Conclusion Insufficient knowledge, negative attitude, and poor practices were observed among many of our participants. Previous nutrition training was found as potential factor of good nutrition knowledge and practice. It is necessary to provide appropriate nutrition information to the adolescent athletes through proper educational intervention on a regular basis.