Investigating the impact of nutrition education given to parents on adolescent swimmers' consumption habits and nutrition knowledge

Healthy nutrition for adolescent athletes is important for both achieving ideal growth and optimum performance. As nutrition of the adolescence is usually the responsibility of their parents, the healthy nutrition program provided by the parents to their child is important for both growth, performance, and also to gain healthy consumption habits. This can be achieved if the parents have a high level of nutritional knowledge. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of sports nutrition education given to parents on the nutritional knowledge and consumption habits of adolescent athletes. The study was carried out in the swimming department of Galatasaray Sports Club with 60 volunteered athletes. At the beginning of the study, demographic information form, food frequency, and nutritional knowledge questionnaire for athletes were applied to the athletes. Immediately after data collection, nutrition education was given to the athlete's parents. Six weeks after education, questionnaires were applied to the athletes again. After education, there were statistically significant increases in the consumption of some foods such as eggs, pulses, nuts, vegetables, fruits, and bread in the dairy group (p<0.05). Also, there was a statistically significant increase in both general and sports nutrition knowledge levels (p<0.05). This study showed that parental education has positive effects on adolescent athlete's consumption habits and nutritional knowledge.