Nutrition education intervention for college female athletes.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of a nutrition education intervention for college female athletes to improve nutrition knowledge, build self-efficacy with respect to making healthful dietary choices, and improve dietary intake.


METHODS
A pretest-posttest control group design was implemented.


METHODS
A women's soccer team (n =15) and a women's swim team (n = 15) were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, respectively.


METHODS
The intervention focused on nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy in making healthful dietary choices, and dietary practices to demonstrate treatment effect.


METHODS
Dependent variables were nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy, and dietary practices. Independent variables were group assignment.


METHODS
The Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the results between groups, and the Fisher exact probability test was used to detect differences between groups in the number of positive dietary changes.


RESULTS
Treatment participants significantly improved nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy (P <.05), and the overall number of positive dietary changes (P <.03).


CONCLUSIONS
This study reduces the paucity of nutrition education intervention research among athletes and demonstrates the ability to increase not only nutrition knowledge, which is typically reported, but also self-efficacy and improvement in overall positive dietary changes during an 8-week intervention.
Abood
Doris A
DA
Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA. dabood@mailer.fsu.edu
Black
David R
DR
Birnbaum
Rachel D
RD
D000328:Adult; D004032:Diet / Q000592:standards*; D015930:Diet Records; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012916:Soccer / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology