Conhecimento em nutrição de estudantes de educação física da universidade federal do Ceará

Abstract

Physical education teachers are the professionals to whom physical exercise practitioners have easier access, and due to the strong influence of dietary consumption on the results promoted by exercise, these professionals are required to provide nutritional and supplementation guidelines even though they are not attributed of the same. In this way, the physical education professional exerts a great influence on the eating habits and quality of life of these individuals. The present study aimed to evaluate the nutritional knowledge of academics of the Physical Education course of the Federal University of Ceará. The sample consisted of 123 physical education students of both sexes, who were in the 1st, 2nd, 8th and 9th years of the course. Nutrition knowledge and possible nutritional orientations were evaluated through a validated questionnaire. The questionnaire used was divided into two main themes: General Nutrition and Sports Nutrition. The first theme was subdivided into the subcategories Food Source and Nutrients, and the second theme was composed of the subcategories nutrition in physical activity and supplementation. The results showed that the average percentage of total hits of physical education students was 55.83%. When we analyzed the total score on the nutritional knowledge of the students of physical education according to the habilitation and course time, we found a higher average of hits for the baccalaureate individuals who were at the end of the course period compared to those who were at the end and at the beginning of the licentiate course, and beginning of the baccalaureate. When we analyzed the means of hits by subcategories, we found that the highest mean (61.26%) was for the food source group. The sub-theme supplementation was the group that reached the lowest hit rate (38.12%) and a greater number of "I do not know" answers. Only 21.1% of the students declared give guidance to their students, in which the subjects most frequently mentioned were food intake before training (76.9%), fluid intake (73.1%) and food intake after training (61.5%). The majority of the students classified their knowledge in median (71.5%). They were identified as the main means of obtaining information about nutrition, the internet (85.4%), lecture / seminar / course (33.3%) and journals (14.6%). It is concluded that physical education students, for the most part, presented a medium level of nutritional knowledge. The baccalaureate group that was at the end of the course presented a higher level of knowledge in nutrition compared to the other groups. In addition, the participants had less knowledge in sports nutrition than in general nutrition, the first is the topic on which students most provide information.