Sports nutritionists want to know more about athletes’ eating habits and fueling patterns. If you are a high-performance athlete who has competed at a state, national, international or other major competitive event, you can help further sports nutrition science by completing this questionnaire about Athlete’s Food Choices. This is the link to online questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AFCQ2019
Coaches, team managers, and support-staff for high-level athletes are also welcome to complete the questionnaire. You will need about 15 to 20 minute to answer the questions.
This research is part of the graduate work being done by Rachael Thurecht, a PhD student in Australia. She hopes to enroll at least 50 more athletes from around the globe to participate in her study. She will gladly send you a summary report, when all is said and done. Contact her at Rachael.Thurecht@research.usc.edu.au.
Thank you, in advance, for finding time to help her. This information will help nutrition professionals to better educate all athletes in the near future.
Nancy
PS: Here is a summary of how Rachael developed the questionnaire. It is published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (May, 2019; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31141405 )
Abstract This study aimed to develop and refine an Athlete Food Choice Questionnaire (AFCQ) to determine the key factors influencing food choice in an international cohort of athletes. A questionnaire that contained 84 items on a 5-point frequency scale was developed for this study. Athletes at the 2017 Universiade, in Taiwan, were invited to participate. Principal component analysis was utilized to identify key factors and to refine the questionnaire. Completed questionnaires were received from 156 athletes from 31 countries and 17 sports. The principal component analysis extracted 36 items organized into nine factors explaining 68.0% of variation. The nine factors were as follows: nutritional attributes of the food, emotional influences, food and health awareness, influence of others, usual eating practices, weight control, food values and beliefs, sensory appeal, and performance. The overall Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure was 0.75, the Bartlett test of sphericity was statistically significant, χ2(666) = 2,536.50, p < .001, and all of the communalities remained >0.5. Intercorrelations were detected between performance and both nutritional attributes of the food and weight control. The price of food, convenience, and situational influences did not form part of the factorial structure. This research resulted in an AFCQ that includes factors specific to athletic performance and the sporting environment. The AFCQ will enable researchers and sports dietitians to better tailor nutrition education and dietary interventions to suit the individual or team. The next phase will test the accuracy and reliability of the AFCQ both during and outside of competition. The AFCQ is a useful tool to assist with management of performance nutrition for athletes.