The nutritional intake of ultraendurance athletes is often poorly matched with the requirements of the sport. Nutrition knowledge is a mediating factor to food choice that could correct such imbalances. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess the nutrition knowledge of ultraendurance athletes. Nutritional knowledge was assessed using a modified sports nutrition knowledge questionnaire (ULTRA-Q). Four independent assessors with specialization in sports nutrition confirmed the content validity of the ULTRA-Q. Registered sports nutritionists, registered dietitians, and those without nutrition training completed the ULTRA-Q on two separate occasions. After the first completion, a significant difference in nutrition scores between groups (p ≤ .001) provided evidence of construct validity. After the second completion, intraclass correlation coefficients comparing nutrition scores between time points (.75-.95) provided evidence of test-retest reliability. Subsequently, experienced ultraendurance athletes (male: n = 74 and female: n = 27) completed the ULTRA-Q. Athletes also documented their sources of nutrition knowledge for ultraendurance events. The total nutrition knowledge score for ultraendurance athletes was 68.3% ± 9.5%, and there were no significant differences in knowledge scores between males and females (67.4% ± 9.6% and 70.7% ± 9.3%, respectively) or between runners and triathletes (69.1% ± 9.7% and 65.1% ± 9.4%, respectively). In general, it appeared that ultraendurance athletes favored other athletes (73%) over nutrition experts (8%) as a source of nutritional information. The findings of this study indicate that ultraendurance athletes had a reasonable level of nutrition knowledge, but interathlete variability suggests a need for targeted nutrition education.

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Caregiver-led interventions have been implemented to improve food selectivity in autistic children. This systematic review assesses the meaningfulness of improvements in food, behaviour, and family outcomes, alongside the acceptability of said interventions. Four key academic databases were searched using key terms related to autism, food selectivity, and parent-led interventions. Thirsty-six studies were reviewed and improvements in food outcomes were reported in all studies, but it was unclear how meaningful this was for the child’s nutritional status. In addition, it was difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about the acceptability of interventions in the family environment. Future parent-led interventions should measure food outcomes in a standardised way that considers the nutritional status of the child and include detailed exploration of intervention acceptability.

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