An examination of university sports participants' beliefs about sports nutrition supplements and their knowledge of sports nutrition

This study aimed to examine how the levels of nutrition knowledge and beliefs about sports supplements among university-level athletes in Turkey and Europe differ in relation to various demographic and individual variables. The research employed the Turkish-adapted versions of the "Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire for Young and Adult Athletes (NUKYA)" and the "Beliefs About Sports Supplements Scale" to analyze the impact of variables such as age, weight, height, gender, type of sport, academic year, faculty, level of athletic engagement (amateur or professional), previous nutrition education, body mass index (BMI), and smoking and alcohol consumption on nutrition knowledge and supplement-related beliefs. The significance level was set at 0,05. The findings revealed that both age and academic year were positively correlated with overall nutrition knowledge and knowledge of macro- and micronutrients (p<0.05). While height and BMI showed a positive correlation with the NUKYA macronutrient subscale, weight was positively associated with the total NUKYA score. However, no statistically significant differences were observed based on gender or sport discipline (p>0.05). Regarding beliefs about sports supplements, only the duration of athletic experience was found to have a statistically significant and negative linear relationship (p<0.05), indicating that athletes may develop a more critical perspective toward supplements as their sporting career progresses. Although no significant overall linear relationship was found between nutrition knowledge and supplement beliefs (p>0.05), a positive correlation was observed in the hydration subdimension (p<0.05). In conclusion, the findings suggest that nutrition knowledge increases with age and education level, that individual sport athletes possess higher nutrition knowledge than those in team sports, and that a lack of systematic education may limit athletes' knowledge levels. Accordingly, it is recommended that universities implement structured nutrition education programs, develop sport-specific content, and promote informed decision-making regarding supplement use. Future research should incorporate qualitative methods and multivariate models to allow for more in-depth analyses. Keywords: Sports Nutrition Knowledge Scale, Sports Supplement Belief Scale, Sports Nutrition