General and sports nutrition knowledge and professionalism in athletes: A cross-sectional study

This study examined the relationship between general and sports nutrition knowledge and athlete professionalism and explored whether these constructs differed according to selected socio-demographic and sport-related characteristics. A cross-sectional correlational design was employed with 221 competitive athletes aged 18-34 years. Nutrition knowledge was assessed using the Turkish version of the General and Sport Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire, while athlete professionalism was evaluated using the Professionalism Scale for Athletes. Group differences were examined using independent-samples t tests, and the association between nutrition knowledge and professionalism was evaluated using Pearson correlation and simple linear regression. Mean nutrition knowledge was 49.95±16.74, whereas mean professionalism was 4.06±0.58. Athletes who had received previous structured nutrition education demonstrated substantially higher nutrition knowledge than those without such education (59.0±14.7 vs. 44.2±15.5; p<0.001; Cohen’s d=0.97). Female athletes scored higher than male athletes (p=0.012; d=0.35), and individual-sport athletes scored higher than team-sport athletes (p=0.031; d=0.29), although these differences were small and exploratory. No meaningful association was observed between nutrition knowledge and athlete professionalism (r=0.04, p=0.553), and nutrition knowledge did not predict professionalism (R²=0.002, p=0.553). These findings indicate that factual nutrition knowledge and athlete professionalism represent largely distinct dimensions of athlete preparation. Structured nutrition education was the factor most strongly associated with greater nutrition knowledge, supporting the need for direct assessment and professionally delivered nutrition education rather than assuming nutritional competence from an athlete’s professional conduct.