Date of Award

5-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Legacy Department

Nutrition

Committee Chair/Advisor

Kunkel, Beth

Committee Member

Delicio , Gail

Committee Member

Kemper , Karen

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Participants in this study were 95 Clemson University student-athletes who were currently on the varsity men's and women's soccer, tennis, track and field, and swimming and diving who completed a survey on nutrition knowledge and attitudes.
The mean total point score on the survey was 17.48 + 1.71. The mean score on knowledge questions on the survey was 11.59 + 3.14 or 46.3%. Females had a slightly higher mean score (12.3+ 3.03 or 49.2%) than males (10.9 + 3.13 or 43.6%) on the knowledge questions. The mean score on attitude questions was 5.89+ 1.67 or 58.9%. Females had a slightly higher mean score (6.19 + 1.53 or 61.9%) than the males (5.60 + 1.76 or 56%) on the attitude questions. A multiple regression analysis for impact of sport, gender, class rank, previous nutrition course, and eating situation on total score on the survey gave an overall R2 of 0.174 (F= 3.75, p= 0.004). There was no significant unique effect of class rank (p = 0.084), sport (p= 0.079), and eating situation (p= 0.079) for this model. The unique effect of gender (p= 0.003) and taking a nutrition course (p= 0.036) were statistically significant. Even though the proposed model was statistically significant, it did not adequately predict performance on the survey. The model predicted that females were to score 2.5 points higher on the survey than males and that those who reported taking a nutrition course in the past were to score 1.7 points lower than those who had not taken a nutrition course. This most likely reflects the relatively small number who reported having taken a nutrition course. Additional studies should include additional attitude questions and further define the role of nutrition education on knowledge and attitudes of student-athletes.

Included in

Nutrition Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.