Examining athletes' nutrition, ergogenic support and probiotic knowledge levels: İzmir example

The aim of this study is to determine the level of knowledge of elite athletes about nutrition, ergogenic support and probiotics, based on the fact that the low level of knowledge of the athletes about sports nutrition, the use of ergogenic support and probiotics leads them to wrong practices and methods and thus makes them vulnerable to the dangers to be experienced. It was determined as the determination of the correct practices and the teaching of correct practices. Statistical calculations were made with IBM SPSS program. After the data were obtained, the frequency (f) and percentage (%) values were calculated and each question item in the questionnaires about the knowledge level about nutrition, ergogenic support knowledge level and probiotic knowledge level was evaluated separately. Chi-square analysis was applied to determine the difference between the expected and observed values by using crosstabs analysis by considering the branch, age, sports year and gender variables of the survey participants. The difference between groups was considered significant when the P value was less than 0.05. As a result; Nutrition, ergogenic support and probiotic knowledge levels of the athletes were found to be insufficient. In this direction, with the support of dietitians, elite athletes and coaches can improve their nutritional knowledge levels through trainings, seminars, courses, etc. It is thought that it will be beneficial to support or raise them with applications, to cooperate with dietitians about the nutrition of athletes, to make this a necessity by ministries and federations, and to constantly emphasize the importance of this issue in written, audio, visual and social media.