Knowledge of Sports Nutrition Among University of Nigeria, Nsukka Student Athletes

The study investigated the Knowledge of sports nutrition among University of Nigeria, Nsukka student athletes. Five specific objectives were formulated with six corresponding research questions and four null hypotheses were postulated to guide the study. The study adopted cross-sectional research design. The study population comprised of all student athletes of university of Nigeria Nsukka campus. The sample for the study consisted of three hundred and eighty six (386) student-athletes of university of Nigeria Nsukka. This represents the total population. A standardized questionnaire developed by Trakman et al (2017) titled Abridged Nutrition for Sport Knowledge Questionnaire (ANSKQ). Spilt half method was used to test the reliability of the instrument. The data was analyzed using frequencies and percentages to answer research questions while the null hypotheses was tested using t-test of independence for variables with two options and ANOVA for variables with more than two options. The major findings revealed that majority of University of Nigeria Nsukka student athletes 66 (68.9 %) have low level of knowledge, majority of the student athletes 54 (67.5%) from 16-20 years have moderate level of knowledge, majority of the student athletes 173 (70.3%) from 21-25 years have high level of knowledge, majority of the male student athletes 25 (12.7%) have high level of knowledge, majority of the 2nd year student athletes have 17 (12.5%) high level of knowledge and majority of student athletes 30 (10.5%) with 1 - 5 years experience have high level of knowledge.There was significance difference in the level of knowledge of sports nutrition among student athletes in UNN based on age (t = 2.216, p = .0270.05) while there was no significance difference in the level of knowledge of sports nutrition among student athletes in UNN based on gender (F = 1.110, Sig = .345>0.05) and there was no significance difference in the level of knowledge of sports nutrition among student athletes in UNN based on gender (t = .864, p = .388>0.05). Based on the findings of the study recommended that the school authority should provide assistance to those student athletes with low level of knowledge of sports nutrition also suggestions for further study was made.