NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND ANTHROPOMETRIC STATUS OF UNIVERSITY ATHLETES

Introduction: The study of food consumption provides specific information on energy and nutrient intake, which may be associated to knowledge about food and nutrition. In this context, the entrance of students in university involves a trend of nutritional transition and negative changes in physical activity levels, resulting in significant changes in student's body composition. Objective: To analyze the relationship between anthropometric profile and nutrition knowledge of university soccer players. Methods: The participants were 37 male university soccer players, aged between 18 and 28 years old, students in the Health and Biological (HB), Technological and Exact (TE) and Human and Social (HS) areas. Body weight, height and skinfolds (triceps, subscapular, suprailiac, abdominal and medial thigh) were measured. In order to measure athletes' nutritional knowledge, we applied a nutritional knowledge questionnaire (NKQ), translated, adapted and validated for Brazil. For statistical analysis, Pearson's correlation and one-way ANOVA with Games-Howell post-hoc were used. Results: Significant differences were observed in body mass, height and fat-free mass (FFM) among athletes. When comparing the areas, there was no significant difference between HB area students compared with others. It was also observed that there were no significant differences for part I, part II or total correct answers. There was also a positive, strong and significant correlation between HS and FFM. Observing other variables in TE area, a negative and moderate correlation was found. For the remaining variables, correlations between scores obtained in NKQ and body composition variables were weak. Conclusion: The sample evaluated presented moderate nutritional knowledge, showing low association with the anthropometric profile. The results also suggest that nutritional knowledge alone is not able to influence eating behavior.