General and Sport Nutrition Knowledge of Sport Scientists

Abstract

Nutritional knowledge (NK) can have a favorable impact on athletic performance and is a modifiable factor of diet consumption. The objectives of this study were to (1) adapt and translate a validated general and sports NK questionnaire into Thai (2) assess the NK of Thai sportspeople, and (3) evaluate the relationship between NK and various sociodemographic factors. The ANSKQ was translated into Thai using forward-backward translation and a convenience sample of 30 people was used for pilot testing and psychometric validation. The Thai ANSKQ had excellent internal consistency and inter-rater agreement. Following ANSKQ validation, a total of 393 eligible participants completed it online. Differences in NK based on demographics were analyzed using Brown-forsythe and Games-Howell for continuous variables and chi-square tests for categorical variables. For each participant characteristic, Odds Ratio (OR) estimated the likelihood of having average total knowledge, good total knowledge, or excellent total knowledge (relative to having poor NK). The results showed that 43.3% of participants had average NK and 38.4% of participants had poor NK. There were statistically significant differences in NK score based on participant role, education level, working experience, nutrition training. In conclusion, Thai sportspeople have average-poor NK and may benefit from increased sports nutrition training.