The Effectiveness of the Nutrition Fulfillment Education Program on Efforts to Improve Hemoglobin and Nutrition Intake of Student Athletes

Abstract

Optimal athlete performance is supported by fulfilling nutritional intake and good nutritional status. Adolescent athletes need optimal nutritional intake to support growth and provide energy to carry out training activities and recovery after competition. However, based on several studies it is still found that adolescent athletes in Indonesia still experience several nutritional problems including stunting, unbalanced nutritional fulfillment, and iron deficiency anemia. The nutrition education was an important aspect to be carried out for groups of athletes in order to increase awareness and knowledge regarding the fulfillment of balanced nutrition. Therefore, the study was aimed to know the effectiveness of nutritional education programs on changes in hemoglobin levels nutrition intake, and knowledge levels in student athletes. This research was conducted at the Sports High School, East Java, involving 49 subjects from five martial sport, which was conducted in six weeks. The subjects were selected using a purposive sampling method . The intervention provided was nutrition education using the lecture method, and using educational media which was carried out once a week for four weeks. Measurement of hemoglobin levels, nutrition intake, and knowledge levels carried out twice, namely before and after the nutrition education intervention. The results of this study showed that statistically there were differences in hemoglobin levels before and after the education program with a p value <0.05, but there was no difference in food intake between before and after the education program with a p value > 0.05. In the knowledge level variable, there is an increase in knowledge from before and after the education program.