A Review of Educational Interventions and Behavior Change Tools to Improve Nutritional Knowledge in Team Sport Athletes

• Team sport athletes often show sub-optimal nutrition knowledge • Traditional education interventions have key limitations • Digital strategies may offer flexible, scalable delivery • Evidence for long-term effectiveness remains limited • Behaviour change frameworks may aid intervention design The influences on dietary behaviour (DB) of team sport athletes (TSA) are multifaceted, although it is clear that nutritional knowledge (NK) plays a key influential role. Throughout the current literature, TSA repeatedly demonstrate suboptimal NK, this is consistent across gender, age, and level of participation, highlighting the need for effective educational interventions (EI). Traditional approaches to nutrition education are often limited by accessibility, time, and cost, whereas technology-based approaches which incorporate microlearning potentially offer greater flexibility and scalability. A technology-based approach such as short form video content, may overcome many of the barriers associated with traditional in-person EI. Despite existing research in nutritional EI and behaviour change (BC) tools, an evidence gap remains concerning the long term impact of multimodal educational approaches within TSA populations. An EI framed upon the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model of BC, incorporating microlearning strategies through modern technology, may provide an effective means for designing an effective intervention to enhance NK in TSA.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nutrition
Published
2026-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2026.113268
Primary Topic
Muscle metabolism and nutrition
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

A Review of Educational Interventions and Behavior Change Tools to Improve Nutritional Knowledge in Team Sport Athletes

AD McNeilly, E.M. McSorley, P.J. Magee, C.V. McDonald
Nutrition
Muscle metabolism and nutrition
article

A Review of Educational Interventions and Behavior Change Tools to Improve Nutritional Knowledge in Team Sport Athletes

AD McNeilly, E.M. McSorley, P.J. Magee, C.V. McDonald
article en

Abstract

• Team sport athletes often show sub-optimal nutrition knowledge • Traditional education interventions have key limitations • Digital strategies may offer flexible, scalable delivery • Evidence for long-term effectiveness remains limited • Behaviour change frameworks may aid intervention design The influences on dietary behaviour (DB) of team sport athletes (TSA) are multifaceted, although it is clear that nutritional knowledge (NK) plays a key influential role. Throughout the current literature, TSA repeatedly demonstrate suboptimal NK, this is consistent across gender, age, and level of participation, highlighting the need for effective educational interventions (EI). Traditional approaches to nutrition education are often limited by accessibility, time, and cost, whereas technology-based approaches which incorporate microlearning potentially offer greater flexibility and scalability. A technology-based approach such as short form video content, may overcome many of the barriers associated with traditional in-person EI. Despite existing research in nutritional EI and behaviour change (BC) tools, an evidence gap remains concerning the long term impact of multimodal educational approaches within TSA populations. An EI framed upon the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model of BC, incorporating microlearning strategies through modern technology, may provide an effective means for designing an effective intervention to enhance NK in TSA.

Nutrition
University of Ulster (GB)
Department for Education, UK Government
Zero hunger
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Muscle metabolism and nutrition
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