Knowledge and Prevalence of common Nutritional Patterns among Non-elite Student Athletes in Lead City University, Ibadan

Nutrition has been seen by many scholars as a branch of science that deals with nutrients particularly in humans. Proper nutrition offers one of the most effective and least costly ways to decrease the burden of many diseases and their associated risk factors, including obesity. This study therefore, focused on knowledge and common nutritional patterns among non-elite student Athletes in Lead City University, Ibadan.Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 100 respondents for the study, while questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts, percentages, mean, and standard deviation were used for the analysis. The results showed that, the level of knowledge of nutrition among student-athletes in LCU Ibadan was high 58.0%. Furthermore, sweetness was rated 1st with a weighted mean score of 2.63, followed by skipping of meals with a weighted mean of 2.41; social media was rated 3rd with a (weighted mean score of 2.24, while quality of food was the least with a weighted mean score of 2.09. This means that sweetness was the foremost prevalence nutritional pattern among student athletes in Lead City University, while quality of food was the least. It was concluded that the level of knowledge of nutrition among student athletes in Lead City University Ibadan was high with Sweetness being the foremost prevalence nutritional pattern. The Sports council of Lead City University, Ibadan should therefore, organize periodic sensitization programme for student-athletes of the institution on health implications of dietary patterns as they affect nutritional status of such athletes.