Attitudes Towards Nutritional Sport Supplement of National and International Kickboxers

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the nutritional ergogenic aids attitudes levels of the active Turkish kickboxers in terms of gender, competition weight, competition category, education status, income levels, and the status of the kickboxers whether international athletes or not. The Attitude Scale toward Nutritional Sports Supplements (ATNSS) was used in this study, which consists of the sub-dimensions benefit, side effects and ethics, natural nutrition. The side effects, ethics and natural nutrition sub-dimensions of female athletes were significantly higher than male athletes. When the relationship between income level and ATNSS sub-dimensions was examined, the side effects and ethics sub-dimension was significantly lower in the athletes with low income than the athletes with middle and higher income. Examining ATNSS' sub-dimensions according to their university education levels, the benefit sub-dimensions scores of athletes studying at the faculty of sports sciences were significantly higher than the athletes who did not study in the sports departments. Further, the benefit sub-dimension scores of the international kickboxers were significantly higher, and the side effect and ethic and natural nutrition sub-dimension scores were significantly lower than the national kick boxers. Conclusively, it is thought that informing the kickboxers about nutritional ergogenic sports supplements may be important in terms of increasing awareness and sporting performance in this area.