Assessment of Nutritional Status and Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Football Players

Author(s) Name:

Evelyn Rishalet Laloo & Dr. S. Kowsalya

Abstract:

Sports Nutrition is defined as a field of nutrition which deals with the use of vital nutrients through proper diet of sports athletes in their day-to-day life in order to improve their performance in sports events or competition. This study aims to identify the dietary habits of the football players, to evaluate their nutritional status and their performance skills in Meghalaya. A comparative study of 60 male football players between the age group of 18-30 years selected randomly from a football club in Shillong and Jowai (30 players from Shillong and 30 players from Jowai) was conducted in 2020, in Shillong and Jowai, Meghalaya. Self-made questionnaires were used to gather data including the participants’ anthropometric measurements, their dietary habits, their knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards sports nutrition and their physical fitness. Using SPSS software for WINDOWS (version 20), all the collected data were statistically analysed and the results were tabulated and evaluated. After providing nutrition education, it is observed that 86.6 per cent of the respondents in Shillong have good knowledge, whereas in Jowai, 96.6 per cent of the respondents have good knowledge; 76.6 per cent of the respondents in Shillong have good attitude, whereas in Jowai, 86.6 per cent of the respondents have good attitude; 6.6 per cent of the respondents in Shillong have good practice, while the respondents in Jowai have 23.3 per cent of good practice. The average intake of cereals is 560.20 for Area-1 which is higher than the average intake for Area-2 of 536.63; the average intake of Meat is 65.00 for Area-1 which is higher than the average intake for Area-2 of 62.23. The average BMI is 22.05 for Area-1 which is higher than the average BMI for Area-2 of 21.92; the average Haemoglobin level is 15.39 for Area-1 which is higher than the average Haemoglobin level for Area-2 of 15.33. However, t-test value 0.325 is not significant as the Significance value is greater than 0.05. Sports nutrition is unique to each person and is planned according to individual goals. A sports nutrition diet may vary daily, depending on specific energy demands. It was evident that the knowledge, attitude and practice of the football players had improved tremendously after providing nutrition education, and by using this improved knowledge, they will also be able to improve their dietary habits and consumption patterns.                                                                                                                                                                         

Keywords:

Sports nutrition, Knowledge, Football, Attitude, Performance.

Please cite this article as:

Evelyn Rishalet Laloo & Dr. S. Kowsalya (2020). Assessment of Nutritional Status and Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Football Players. International Journal of Recent Research and Applied Studies, 7, 12(8), 34-42.