Assessing The Perceived Reliability Of Nutritional Information Sources Among Sub-elite Rugby Athletes

PURPOSE: Examine nutritional perception and information sources in sub-elite rugby 7 s athletes, 2011 and sports post-professionalism, in 2021, highlighting trends in trusted resources to improve knowledge. BACKGROUND: Health and performance depend on good nutrition intake. However, athlete’s nutritional knowledge severely lacks with international cohorts scoring below 50% on nutritional knowledge questionnaires. Further complicated by the variability in the nutritional knowledge among primary information sources. The deficiency in sports nutrition knowledge in athletes and their primary information sources emphasizes a need for further evaluation to address these inadequacies. METHODS: A cross-sectional study surveyed sub-elite rugby 7 s players at 2010-11 Las Vegas Invitational/Northeast RFU Summer 7 s and re-administered, at 2021 Empire Geographic Union 7 s Qualifiers. The questionnaire used current nutritional guidelines and validated surveys and was analyzed via likelihood Chi-square to compare cohorts' responses. RESULTS: Most reliable sources of nutritional information, 2011 were nutritionists (72%), fitness trainers (75%), and doctors (76%); 2021: fitness trainers (78%), doctors (85%), and nutritionists (88%). The least reliable in 2011 were magazines (20%), the internet (27%), and TV/Radio (36%); 2021: magazines (29%), family (39%), and TV/Radio (54%). A likelihood Chi-square test found significant differences in reliability for family (χ2 = 19.38, df = 4, p = 0.0007), nutritionist (χ2 = 18.86, df = 4, p = 0.0008), friends (χ2 = 12.30, df = 4, p = 0.02), TV/Radio (χ2 = 12.38, df = 4, p = 0.02), coworkers (χ2 = 17.43, df = 4, p = 0.02), coach (χ2 = 11.60, df = 4, p = 0.02), doctor (χ2 = 10.92, df = 4, p = 0.03), other (χ2 = 10.68, df = 4, p = 0.03), and internet (χ2 = 10.22, df = 4, p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Pre-professionally (prior 2016), athletes cited coaches as a primary information source. A significant shift noted post-professionally, with decreased perceived reliability of coaches and increased reliability of nutritionists (p = 0.0008) and doctors (p = 0.028), suggesting growing awareness of professional guidance. This highlights a positive correlation between athletes receiving appropriate nutritional knowledge from evidence-based sources to aid performance of these athletes internationally.