LB028 - SUBOPTIMAL DIET QUALITY IN ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT COMPETITIVE ATHLETES: A CROSS-SECTIONAL CLINICAL NUTRITION ASSESSMENT

LB028

SUBOPTIMAL DIET QUALITY IN ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT COMPETITIVE ATHLETES: A CROSS-SECTIONAL CLINICAL NUTRITION ASSESSMENT

M. S. Avağ^1,*, G. Dumlu Bilgin²

¹Faculty of Health Sciences, Hacettepe University, Ankara, ²Faculty of Health Sciences, Yeditepe University, İstanbul, Türkiye

Rationale: Adequate diet quality is essential to support growth, recovery and sustained athletic performance during adolescence and young adulthood. Suboptimal diet quality may compromise health, recovery and performance in young athletes. We evaluated overall diet quality and clinically relevant differences in adolescent and young adult competitive athletes.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 236 athletes aged 13-30 years (185 male, 51 female) from football, basketball, athletics and American football completed a face-to-face assessment and a 24-h dietary recall. Diet quality was assessed with the Healthy Eating Index-2020 (HEI-2020; 0-100). Group differences were analyzed using appropriate parametric/non-parametric tests and the chi-square test.

Results: Mean HEI-2020 was 49.34±8.42; 56.8% had poor diet quality and 43.2% required improvement; no athlete achieved a good score. Females had higher total HEI-2020 than males (52.44±7.42 vs 48.49±8.49, p=0.003), with higher whole-fruit, total-vegetable, greens-and-beans and whole-grain scores (all p≤0.014). Athletes reporting dietitians as their primary sports-nutrition information source had higher HEI-2020 scores than those relying on coaches or other sources (52.54±7.45 vs 48.36±8.30 and 49.52±9.04, respectively; p=0.015). Particularly low overall component scores were observed for total fruits (1.07±1.74/5), fatty acids (1.83±3.02/10) and saturated fats (0.11±0.78/10).

Conclusion: Diet quality was suboptimal across the cohort. The findings support routine diet-quality screening and the potential value of individualized dietitian-led support to address modifiable dietary gaps in adolescent and young adult athletes.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared