Sportsmen’s Attitude towards Dietary Supplements and Nutrition Knowledge: An Investigation in Selected Roman Area Gyms

Study answer

What this study found

46.4% reported using food supplements for sport; top supplements were multivitamins (31.0%), amino acid pills (29.5%), minerals (29.1%), and protein powders (28.7%). Primary reasons: increase muscle mass (36.9%) and muscle repair/recovery (35.1%). Gym trainers were the preferred information source, especially among males (84%). Mean NKS score was 18.8/33 (57.1% correct); 47.3% had adequate NKS (≥60%). NKS was higher in males (61.5%) than females (38.5%), and higher among those with higher education (44.5–53%). In multivariate analysis, 87.1% of respondents who performed strength training and…

Study & population

Cross-sectional study of non-professional gym users aged 20-50 who frequented five fitness centers in Rome and surrounding province.

Key limitation

Self-reported data; cross-sectional design; sample limited to five gyms in the Rome area; potential selection and recall biases; not generalizable to other populations or settings; data collected in 2017; some results rely on subset data or are not fully reported.

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Original abstract