The effects of a nutritional intervention on the sports nutrition knowledge and nutritional status of elite athletes: protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

The effects of a nutritional intervention on the sports nutrition knowledge and nutritional status of elite athletes: protocol for a randomized controlled trial. | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The effects of a nutritional intervention on the sports nutrition knowledge and nutritional status of elite athletes: protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Ranil Jayawardena, Kalani Weerasinghe, Indu Nanayakkara, Terrence Madhujith, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4390989/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 20 Feb, 2025 Read the published version in Trials → Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: Sports nutrition plays a crucial role in providing the fuel to meet the energy demands of athletes' training programs, enhancing adaptations associated with training, and ensuring rapid recovery between workouts. However, evidence suggests that the dietary habits of many athletes are unsatisfactory when compared to sport-specific nutrition recommendations. This discrepancy is mainly due to a lack of up-to-date, evidence-based nutritional knowledge. Hence, this parallel-group, randomized controlled clinical trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a 16-week evidence-based, culturally appropriate, personalized sports nutrition intervention on the sports nutrition knowledge and nutritional status of elite athletes in Sri Lanka, in comparison to a control group that does not receive this intervention. Methods: Elite track and field athletes, competing at the national level and/or representing Sri Lanka in international competitions, will be randomly allocated to either the intervention group (IG) (n=15) or the control group (CG) (n=15). Participants in the IG will receive an evidence-based, culturally acceptable, personalized sports nutrition intervention from the principal investigator through one-to-one consultations at four time points (0, 4 th , 8 th , and 12 th weeks), while participants in the CG will be followed up throughout the period without receiving the intervention. The primary outcome measure is the number of participants who achieve at least a 10% increase in mean sports nutrition knowledge score at the end of the 16 th week, compared to the control group. Secondary outcomes include nutritional status and sports performance-related measures at the beginning and end of the 16 th week. Discussion: While the primary objective is to enhance sports nutrition knowledge (SNK), it is anticipated that improvements in nutritional status and overall health may significantly impact sports performance, overall health, and career longevity of the athletes. Trial registration: This trial is registered under the Sri Lanka Clinical Trial Registry: SLCTR/2024/013 on 10 th April 2024. Sports nutrition sports nutrition knowledge sports performance track and field athletes. Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 20 Feb, 2025 Read the published version in Trials → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Minor revision 24 Nov, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Aug, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 24 Jun, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 23 May, 2024 First submitted to journal 12 May, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4390989","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":318237760,"identity":"b7a8f974-0a6a-4a61-a40b-95ae8a3092d4","order_by":0,"name":"Ranil Jayawardena","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7352-9365","institution":"University of Colombo","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ranil","middleName":"","lastName":"Jayawardena","suffix":""},{"id":318237761,"identity":"f2b932e3-14f4-4cd7-9391-3bd736e39f81","order_by":1,"name":"Kalani 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