Evaluation of Nutritional factors and body composition of selected athletic students of high school in Hamedan city

Introduction: Adolescence is one of the most sensitive and important periods of human development. At this stage, the growth suddenly increases. This rapid growth requires special nutritional needs. Nutritional knowledge is a process that can empower a person to use the information to improve the nutritional status and health of the individual. Nutrition culture forms the process of food consumption and provides health to the community. It is valuable. Today, combating the problem of nutritional illiteracy, or in other words, raising the level of nutritional knowledge in society, is known as one of the useful ways to reduce malnutrition and also reduce the rate of obesity and related diseases in society. Various studies show that various factors such as misleading advertising, the availability of convenient and fast food, lifestyle, and poor nutritional knowledge, put food choices at risk among adolescents. Lack of necessary nutritional knowledge in addition to the adverse effect on body mass index (BMI) and the risk of diseases such as diabetes and obesity reduces general physical fitness and reduces their health. It seems that one of the important reasons for poor nutrition is the incorrect or lack of knowledge of athletes and coaches in this regard. Awareness removes prejudices and misconceptions and has the greatest impact on creating a positive attitude and good performance. Because most eating habits are formed and established during adolescence, it is important to pay attention to adolescentschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) nutritional knowledge. Most of the nutritional functions and behaviors of individuals are performed according to the nutritional attitudes of individuals. "Body composition" is a term used to distribute the percentage of fat, bone, and muscle in the body and includes fat weight and lean weight. The use of height and weight indicators to understand the health and nutritional status of children and adolescents in society is becoming increasingly important. Lack of proper nutritional knowledge in adolescence, in addition to the occurrence of diseases, also affects the body composition of individuals. By knowing the physical composition of adolescents, it is possible to provide proper nutrition and physical activity programs. Dietary habits are also one of the significant factors that affect a personchr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s health. The results show that nutritional practices are more influenced by nutritional cultures, beliefs, and attitudes than by nutritional awareness. Considering the mentioned issues and the importance of nutrition in the growth and health of adolescents and existing nutritional problems, and considering the little research in this regard in our country and the contradictory results of previous research, so more research is needed in this The field should be used to change the quality of nutrition and improve it to increase performance by evaluating and promoting studentschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) nutrition knowledge, attitude and performance. Therefore, the present study is designed in this direction, what is the level of knowledge, attitude, and nutritional methods of students in Hamadan? Materials and Methods: The research method was descriptive-survey and was conducted in the field by questionnaire and interview. The statistical population included all male and female high school students in the city of Hamedan, whose number according to the information obtained through the Education Department of Hamedan province was 10,500 people (5300 boys, 5200 girls) in the academic year of 97-98. After determining the population of the statistical population, the statistical sample according to the number of the statistical population and the use of Morgan table as well as Cochranchr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s formula, which was obtained from both similar results, 372 people (186 boys and 186 girls) athletes and non athletes were selected by random cluster sampling for research. There were 93 athletes and 93 non-athletes in the girls chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))and boyschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) groups. Athletic participants included in the statistical sample were people who had continuous sports activity and were selected as members of school ball sports, and non-athlete samples were normal students who were not active in sports, the age range of both groups from 15 to 18 year old and studied in the secondary schools of Hamedan. Statistical samples were randomly selected. First, a request to conduct a research project in schools was submitted to the General Directorate of Education of Hamadan province, which after reviewing and approving, sent a letter to cooperate in districts 1 and 2 of Hamadan and the mentioned areas with the subject of cooperation in research to all schools Relevant sent. As a cluster selection from each district, 4 schools were selected, a total of 8 schools, of which 4 were girls chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))schools and 4 were boyschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) schools. In the selection of schools and samples, the issue of purposefulness and randomness was considered. In schools, consent was given to selected students for research. Then the relevant questionnaire was distributed among the students. Before filling in the questionnaires by the students, a complete explanation was given about how to complete the questionnaire and the necessary accuracy, importance, and purpose of doing it for the subjects, and they were asked to answer the questions honestly and cooperate properly with the researcher. Have. Students were asked to refrain from mentioning their names and details. Studentschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) weight and height were also measured. The research questionnaire consists of sections of knowledge, attitude, and nutrition methods, which was designed in 1999 by Parmenter and Wardell. After translating the questionnaire and adjusting some of the questions according to eating habits in Iranian culture and consulting physiologists to obtain face validity and by testing and retesting to obtain its reliability. This questionnaire was reviewed and the content was reviewed and the problems of the questionnaire were resolved. Statistical analysis of these questionnaires confirmed its reliability. This questionnaire was also validated by Azizi et al. In 2011. Cronbachchr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s alpha was 0.78 for knowledge and 0.74 for nutritional attitudes. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to examine the normal distribution of data. In inferential statistics, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between variables, and one-way analysis of variance test was used to examine the group difference and Tukey post hoc test was used to show the location of the group difference. SPSS software version 24 was used to analyze the data. Where used and the results were analyzed at a significance level of P <0.05. Results: The results showed that 186 (50%) were male students and 186 (50%) were female students. Also, 186 (50%) students are athletes and 186 (50%) are non-athlete students. The average age of students is 17.07 years and its standard deviation is 0.69 years. The average height of students is 169.4 cm and the standard deviation is 8.03 cm. The average height by sex was 174.19 cm in boys and 164.68 cm in girls. Analysis of variance was used to test the observed differences between the research variables between male and female students, athletes, and non-athletes. The results of the analysis of variance in Table 1 show that between the level of nutritional knowledge of male and female students, athletes and non-athletes, with a value of F=1.29, p=0.27 at the level (α≥0.05 There is no significant difference. Also, there is no significant difference between the nutritional attitudes of male and female students, athletes and non-athletes, with a value of F=1.25, p=0.28 at the level (α≥0.05). While there is a significant difference between the nutritional styles of male and female students, athletes, and non-athletes, with a value of F=5.90, p=0.001 at the level (α≥0.05). Comparison of the mean scores of nutritional methods in the groups with Tukey post hoc test showed that between the mean scores of athlete boy with non-athlete boy group (p = 0.009), athlete girl (p=0.040) and non-athlete girl (P=0.001), there is a significant difference. While there is no significant difference between the mean scores of other groups (non-athlete boy, athlete girl, non-athlete girl) (p <0.05). A comparison of the mean scores of body mass index in the groups with Tukey post hoc test showed that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of the athlete boy with the non-athlete boy group (p=0.008) and the non-athlete girl (p = 0.000). There is a significant difference between the mean body mass index (BMI) of non-athlete boys and non-athlete girls (p=0.035); Also, there is a significant difference between the mean body mass index (BMI) of female athlete and non-athlete girl (p=0.000) and there is no significant difference between the mean body mass index (BMI) of other groups (p <0.05). Conclusion: Given that adolescence is an important period in terms of the development of each person. It is necessary to improve their level of knowledge, attitudes, and nutritional behaviors. Increasing nutritional awareness will ultimately improve the health of people in the community. Due to the existing unfavorable nutritional conditions and limited studies in the field of nutrition in Iran and the relatively contradictory results of previous research and the importance of the subject to promote community health, conduct more studies and measures to improve adolescentschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) knowledge, attitude, and nutritional practices and expression. Useful solutions in this field seem necessary.