Sports Nutrition, Dietary Practices, and Supplement Use Among University Athletes in Pakistan: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study
Abstract
Background: Sports nutrition plays an important role in supporting athletic performance, recovery, training adaptation, and general health. However, athletes may experience difficulties translating nutritional knowledge into appropriate dietary practices.
Objective: This study aims to examine sports nutrition knowledge, dietary practices, and supplement use among university athletes in Pakistan and investigate the association between nutritional knowledge and dietary practices.
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional research design is proposed. The illustrative analysis uses a simulated dataset representing 200 university athletes aged 18–27 years. A structured questionnaire is proposed to assess demographic characteristics, sports nutrition knowledge, dietary practices, previous nutrition education, and dietary supplement use. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, an independent-samples t-test, and multiple linear regression are used to demonstrate the planned statistical analysis.
Results: In the simulated dataset, the mean sports nutrition knowledge score was 10.81 ± 3.60 out of 20, while the mean dietary practices score was 15.22 ± 5.02 out of 30. Approximately 35.0% of participants fell into the low-knowledge category, 48.5% into the moderate-knowledge category, and 16.5% into the high-knowledge category. A positive correlation was observed between sports nutrition knowledge and dietary practices (r = 0.583, p < 0.001). Participants reporting previous nutrition education had higher mean knowledge scores than those without such education. Simulated supplement use was reported by 24.0% of participants.
Conclusion: The illustrative findings demonstrate how nutritional knowledge and dietary practices can be investigated among university athletes. If comparable patterns are observed in actual data, the results would support the introduction of structured sports nutrition education, access to qualified sports nutrition professionals, and athlete-focused dietary counselling.
Keywords: Sports nutrition; nutritional knowledge; dietary practices; university athletes; dietary supplements; physical education; Pakistan.
