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Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Youth team sport athletes face unique nutritional challenges due to the combined demands of growth, development and exercise. This scoping review systematically mapped the literature on dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, education interventions and factors influencing dietary behaviors in male and female team sport athletes aged 12-19 years. The review aimed to identify knowledge gaps, highlight methodological limitations and inform recommendations for advancing both research and practice in this population. METHODS: The review followed PRISMA-ScR guidelines and was pre-registered on the Open Science Framework. Eligible studies examined dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, education interventions and factors influencing dietary behavior in youth team sport athletes. Searches were conducted across PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and gray literature sources. Study selection and data charting were conducted by the lead reviewer, with independent verification by a second reviewer. Findings were synthesized using descriptive analysis and thematic synthesis across these four domains. RESULTS: Fifty-seven studies involving 4,369 youth team sport athletes were included. Cross-sectional designs predominated (59.6%) and the evidence base was characterized by significant methodological inconsistencies, including wide variation in dietary assessment methods, limited adjustment for misreporting and substantial underrepresentation of female athletes who accounted for 26.9% of the total sample. Energy and carbohydrate intake were frequently reported below recommended levels, most evident during periods of intensive training and competition. However, findings from studies using doubly labeled water suggest that the magnitude of reported deficits may be overestimated due to dietary underreporting and imprecise estimation of energy expenditure. Protein and fat intake generally met recommendations although micronutrient intake often fell short, particularly for vitamins A, D, and E, calcium and iron. Nutrition knowledge was limited, particularly for sport-specific topics and none of the questionnaires used were validated for adolescent populations. Twelve education interventions were identified; education-only approaches rarely produced changes in dietary behavior, whereas interventions incorporating behavior change components tended to report improvements. Only five studies examined factors influencing dietary behavior, finding that parents, coaches and peers acted as both enablers and barriers to dietary adherence, and that environmental constraints compromised dietary quality. CONCLUSIONS: Youth team sport athletes commonly exhibit inadequate reported energy and carbohydrate intake alongside frequent micronutrient shortfalls, although the reliability of these estimates is limited by methodological constraints. Nutrition knowledge is generally poor, particularly in sport-specific areas. Dietary behaviors are shaped by individual, social and environmental influences that extend beyond knowledge alone and education interventions rarely produce sustained dietary change without the integration of behavior change strategies. Future research should prioritize more rigorous and consistent methodological approaches, improved representation of female athletes and the development of youth-specific validated assessment tools. Given the scope and persistence of the methodological inconsistencies identified, the development of an expert-led consensus statement on standards for dietary assessment, nutrition knowledge measurement, intervention design and participant characterization may help advance the quality and comparability of future research in this population.
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TL;DR
This PRISMA-ScR scoping review mapped 57 studies (4,369 youth team sport athletes aged 12–19) on dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, education interventions, and factors influencing dietary behavior. It found frequently reported inadequate energy and carbohydrate intake and poor sport-specific nutrition knowledge, but major methodological inconsistencies, female underrepresentation, and unvalidated adolescent knowledge questionnaires limit confidence in the evidence.
Key findings
- Across 57 studies involving 4,369 athletes, females accounted for 26.9% of the sample (1,176 females; 3,167 males; 26 unspecified), and cross-sectional designs predominated (59.6%).
- Reported carbohydrate intake varied from 3.6 to 8.3 g/kg/day, with 76.9% (20/26) of studies reporting carbohydrate in g/kg/day showing mean values below the recommended 6–10 g/kg/day; protein intake was typically adequate (1.2–2.6 g/kg/day), while fat ranged from 0.9 to 1.8 g/kg/day.
- Nutrition knowledge scores ranged from 42% to 69.5%, with 43.8% of studies reporting poor to inadequate knowledge; none of the questionnaires used were validated for adolescent populations.
- Of 12 education interventions, 5 (41.7%) reported improved dietary behavior, all of which incorporated behavior change components beyond education alone; only 5 studies examined factors influencing dietary behavior, finding parents, coaches, and peers acted as both enablers and barriers.
Methods
- Scoping review following PRISMA-ScR and JBI guidance, pre-registered on the Open Science Framework; searches of PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, and gray literature were conducted between January 15 and June 7, 2024, yielding 12,151 records.
- Eligible studies examined dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, education interventions, or factors influencing dietary behavior in male and female team sport athletes aged 12–19 years; 57 studies met eligibility.
- Data were synthesized using descriptive analysis and thematic synthesis across four predefined domains; study quality was appraised with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Quality Criteria Checklist, though no studies were excluded on quality.
Limitations
- Stated in the paper: only English-language publications were included, studies focused solely on vitamin or supplement use were excluded, and heterogeneity in designs, dietary assessment methods, and nutrition knowledge tools limited comparability; as a scoping review, it mapped evidence rather than evaluating efficacy or causality.
- Evident from the text: female athletes were substantially underrepresented (70.2% of studies focused exclusively on males; 10.5% solely on females), 60.9% of dietary studies did not address reporting bias, 77.2% did not report a priori power calculations, and no nutrition knowledge questionnaire was validated for adolescents.
- Evident from the text: most studies were cross-sectional (59.6%) and concentrated in soccer (64.9%), basketball (17.5%), and rugby (15.8%), limiting generalizability and causal inference.
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“education-only approaches rarely produced changes in dietary behavior”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Abstract > Results
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“Cross-sectional designs were most common (59.6%), offering descriptive snapshots of dietary behaviours but limiting the ability to assess change over time or establish causality.”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Discussion > Methodological quality and participant representation
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In the paper
“Sixteen studies assessed nutrition knowledge in youth team sport athletes, as summarised in Table 4.”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Results > Nutrition knowledge
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In the paper
“The largest deficits occurred on match days and during intensive training periods, when energy expenditure increased but dietary intake did not adjust accordingly [34,60,69].”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Discussion > Energy intake patterns and availability
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [34] Briggs M, Cockburn E, Rumbold PLS, et al. Assessment of energy intake and energy expenditure of Male adolescent academy-level soccer players during a competitive week. Nutrients. 2015; 7(10): 8392– 8401. doi: 10.3390/nu7105400 26445059 PMC4632420 source
- Not checked yetcites [60] Martinho DV, Naughton RJ, Leão C, et al. Dietary intakes and daily distribution patterns of macronutrients in youth soccer players. Front Nutr. 2023; 10: 1134845. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1134845 37153912 PMC10157276 source
- Not checked yetcites [69] Russell M, Pennock A. Dietary analysis of young professional soccer players for 1 week during the competitive season. J Strength Cond Res. 2011; 25(7): 1816– 1823. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e7fbdd 21478767 source
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In the paper
“Among these, one found no significant energy deficit at group level despite high energy demands [9], another identified approximately 40% underreporting of energy intake relative to measured expenditure [74] and a third reported a deficit of 389 kcal/day [10], lower than many of the deficits reported in studies relying on estimated expenditure.”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Discussion > Energy intake patterns and availability
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [74] Silva AM, Santos DA, Matias CN, et al. Total energy expenditure assessment in elite junior basketball players: a validation study using doubly labeled water. J Strength Cond Res. 2013; 27(7): 1920– 1927. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31827361eb 22990574 source
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In the citing paper
“Previous reviews have shown that nutrition education interventions in athletes may improve nutrition knowledge, although effects on dietary intake, body composition, and performance are less consistent (9, 10).”
In the citing paper
“However, previous reviews have either focused on team-sport players irrespective of developmental stage, on nutrition education rather than broader nutritional interventions, or on scoping the field rather than systematically appraising intervention evidence across outcome domains (9, 10).”
In the citing paper
“More recently, Irwin et al. (10) mapped dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, education interventions, and behavioral influences in youth team-sport athletes, highlighting persistent methodological limitations and the need to advance research and practice in this population.”
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In the paper
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Abstract > Results
“none of the questionnaires used were validated for adolescent populations”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Results > Nutrition knowledge
“Validated (validated with adolescent and young adult athletes; modified)”
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In the paper
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Materials and methods > Data synthesis
“energy intake assessed via doubly labelled water (DLW) method”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Discussion > Energy intake patterns and availability
“the four studies in this review that used doubly labelled water to assess energy expenditure [9,10,12,74]”
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
“body mass increasing by 6.2 kg (4.8 kg fat-free mass, 1.6 kg fat)”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Materials and methods > Data synthesis
Reported 6.2 · recomputed 6.4
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Results > Education interventions
“6 months; baseline and post (intervention group only)”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Materials and methods > Data synthesis
“Post-test: Overall: 6.19; Control: 5.98; Intervention: 6.39”
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Results > Nutrition knowledge
“Both classroom-based and WeChat-delivered education improved knowledge”
§ Dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, and behavior in youth team sport athletes: a scoping review and call to advance research and practice > Results > Nutrition knowledge
“Pre-intervention scores: Classroom = 85%, WeChat = 84%. Post-intervention: Classroom = 88%, WeChat = 83%”
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Citations
Cites
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“Study selection was conducted in accordance with PRISMA-ScR recommendations [23].”
PRESS Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies: 2015 Guideline Statement
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Defining Training and Performance Caliber: A Participant Classification Framework
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Cited by
Victoria-Montesinos, D., García-Muñoz, A. M., Mercader-Ros, M. T., Jaraba-Salinero, Y., & Figueroa-Morales, F. (2026) · Frontiers in Nutrition · doi:10.3389/fnut.2026.1939289 · Cited by 1
Lagua-Saquinga, E. L., Poveda-Morales, T. C., & Estrada-Velasco, L. J. (2026) · CIENCIAMATRIA · doi:10.35381/cm.v12i4.3042
Anthropometric assessment of nutritional status among young football athletes
Hartanto, B. A., Matadi, G. E. P., Annas, M. R., & Zulkarnain, W. D. (2026) · Journal of Pedagogy in Sport and Physical Activity · doi:10.68701/jpspa.v1i1.15
Yamamoto, T., Seguchi, M., Iio, Y., Tanaka, M., Kozai, H., Ejiri, H., Aoyama, Y., Mori, Y., & Ito, M. (2026) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu18213609
Metadata
- Authors
- Irwin, N., Ó Catháin, C., Ward, C., & Kelly, D. T.
- Affiliations
- Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest (IE)
- Department of Sport and Health Science, Technological University of the Shannon
- Corresponding author
- Irwin, Neil
- Venue
- Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2026-05-14
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 2671431-2671431
- ISSN
- 1550-2783 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC13182181
- OpenAlex
- W7161307677
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 113
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4
- FWCI
- 3.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Research Ireland (Grant number EBPPG/2023/1141)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Keywords
- dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, dietary behavior, nutrition education intervention, micronutrient deficiency, behavior change strategies, peer influence, environmental constraints, youth athletes, energy expenditure estimation, micronutrient intake
- MeSH terms
- Youth Sports, Evidence Gaps, Adolescent, Energy Intake, Child, Diet, Feeding Behavior, Female, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Male, Young Adult, Athletes, Sports Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
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