Nutrition knowledge among adolescent high school female athletes

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an original sports nutrition education program in changing the nutrition behavior of the female high school varsity football teams of the Baseline League of Southern California. A total of 72 subjects from eight teams were randomly divided into two groups, control and experimental. Only the experimental group received nutrition education. Dietary habits of the athletes were studied through a pre- and post- 24-hour recall. A comparison of pretest scores of both groups showed no significant difference in level of nutrition knowledge. The posttest scores obtained after nutrition education showed a significant difference in nutrition knowledge for the experimental group. However, there was no significant improvement in dietary intake and food choices due to the limited duration of the study.