Social Media as a Nutrition Resource for Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Social media contains a wealth of nutrition information and proposes a cost-effective, highly engaging platform to deliver nutrition information to athletes. This study used an online questionnaire to determine whether New Zealand athletes are using social media as a source of nutrition information and to understand perceptions of social media as a nutrition resource. Quantitative data were analyzed using t tests, chi-squared tests, and logistic regression analysis. Inductive thematic analysis was adopted for the qualitative data. From the 306 athletes who completed the questionnaire, 65% reported social media use for nutrition purposes in the past 12 months. Social media use was predicted by both athlete status and gender. Female athletes were more likely to have used social media for nutrition purposes (odds ratio = 2.7, 95% confidence interval [1.52, 4.62], p = .001) than males. Elite athletes were less likely to have used social media for nutrition (odds ratio = 0.44, 95% confidence interval [0.24, 0.83], p = .011) than recreational athletes. Athletes commonly used social media for practical nutrition purposes, including recipes and information about restaurants/cafes. Perceived advantages of social media as a nutrition resource included ease of access, well-presented information, personal connectedness, and information richness. Athletes' primary concern for obtaining nutrition information from social media was information unreliability.

The Influence of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Perceived Nutrition Habits in Rugby Union Players

“…Teammates and family members who have not received appropriate training can provide incorrect and potentially harmful information. Additionally, it is important that athletes are aware of the possibility of unreliable information being presented through digital channels (24).…”

Sources of Nutrition Information in Recreational Ultra-marathon Runners: A Mixed Methods Analysis

“…Others have documented this discrepancy (Moorhead et al, 2013;Oh & Kim, 2014) between high utilization and low trustworthiness for health and nutrition information on social media. Bourke et al (2019) report that athletes use this source because it is ''convenient, free and fast,'' noting that information often ''pops up'' during social media use without having to look for it. Given the demonstrated interest in scientific information, it may be beneficial for researchers and dietitians to utilize this source as an effective means of directly communicating with athletes.…”

Social Media Posts' Influence on College Athletes' Protein Knowledge

“…The results of this study did not indicate that the use of social media in the introductory nutrition course was of value when modifying a college student's readiness to change regarding nutritional lifestyle behaviors and there were only significant alterations in dietary intake relating to dairy and protein foods (Crawford-Ciglar, 2017) As far as athletes and their use of social media as a resource, 306 New Zealand athletes were surveyed to determine whether they are using social media as a source of nutrition information and to understand perceptions of social media as a nutrition resource. Of the athletes surveyed, 65% reported using social media for nutrition purposes in the past 12 months (Bourke et al, 2019). It was found that female athletes were more likely to use social media for nutrition purposes than males and elite athletes were less likely to use social media for nutrition purposes compared to recreational athletes.…”

“…There is also very limited research that has been done to examine how social media is used in the sports nutrition world. From the research that has been done, it has been found that female athletes are more likely to use social media for nutrition purposes and athletes commonly used social media for practical nutrition purposes related to recipes or information about restaurants (Bourke et al, 2019). Sports nutritionists have been encouraged to embrace social media and to utilize it for interventions to their athletes (Dunne et al, 2019).…”

“…Athletes reported commonly using social media for practical nutrition purposes such as recipes, information about restaurants, and weight loss and weight maintenance. The main concern for athletes not utilizing social media as a resource for nutrition information was receiving unreliable information (Bourke et al, 2019).…”