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Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships

Low energy availability (LEA) causes impaired physiological functioning. Cross-country running is a weight-sensitive sport, making athletes more prone to LEA. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of elite European cross-country athletes at risk of LEA using the LEA in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) a...

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Autores principales: Jesus, Filipe, Castela, Inês, Silva, Analiza M, Branco, Pedro A., Sousa, Mónica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8000897/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33800051
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13030873
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author Jesus, Filipe
Castela, Inês
Silva, Analiza M
Branco, Pedro A.
Sousa, Mónica
author_facet Jesus, Filipe
Castela, Inês
Silva, Analiza M
Branco, Pedro A.
Sousa, Mónica
author_sort Jesus, Filipe
collection PubMed
description Low energy availability (LEA) causes impaired physiological functioning. Cross-country running is a weight-sensitive sport, making athletes more prone to LEA. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of elite European cross-country athletes at risk of LEA using the LEA in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) and to analyze demographic and physical characteristics that are associated with LEA. Athletes ≥ 18 years competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships (n = 602) were invited to complete a questionnaire (sociodemographic, training, anthropometric characteristics, and LEAF-Q). A total of 207 valid surveys were collected (83 females, 22.1 (4.0) years, and 124 males, 22.3 (4.1) years), and 16 surveys were excluded. A high prevalence of athletes at risk of LEA (64.3%) was observed, being higher in females than in males (79.5 and 54.0% respectively, p < 0.001). More than half of athletes (54.1%, n = 112) reported bowel movements once a week or more rarely, while 33 female athletes (41.3%) did not report normal menstruation. Overall, cross-country athletes are at high risk of LEA. Moreover, a high prevalence of gastrointestinal and menstrual impairments was reported. Hence, athletes should be followed by multidisciplinary teams to inform, prevent, and treat LEA and its effects.
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spelling pubmed-80008972021-03-28 Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships Jesus, Filipe Castela, Inês Silva, Analiza M Branco, Pedro A. Sousa, Mónica Nutrients Article Low energy availability (LEA) causes impaired physiological functioning. Cross-country running is a weight-sensitive sport, making athletes more prone to LEA. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of elite European cross-country athletes at risk of LEA using the LEA in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) and to analyze demographic and physical characteristics that are associated with LEA. Athletes ≥ 18 years competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships (n = 602) were invited to complete a questionnaire (sociodemographic, training, anthropometric characteristics, and LEAF-Q). A total of 207 valid surveys were collected (83 females, 22.1 (4.0) years, and 124 males, 22.3 (4.1) years), and 16 surveys were excluded. A high prevalence of athletes at risk of LEA (64.3%) was observed, being higher in females than in males (79.5 and 54.0% respectively, p < 0.001). More than half of athletes (54.1%, n = 112) reported bowel movements once a week or more rarely, while 33 female athletes (41.3%) did not report normal menstruation. Overall, cross-country athletes are at high risk of LEA. Moreover, a high prevalence of gastrointestinal and menstrual impairments was reported. Hence, athletes should be followed by multidisciplinary teams to inform, prevent, and treat LEA and its effects. MDPI 2021-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8000897/ /pubmed/33800051 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13030873 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Jesus, Filipe
Castela, Inês
Silva, Analiza M
Branco, Pedro A.
Sousa, Mónica
Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships
title Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships
title_full Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships
title_fullStr Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships
title_full_unstemmed Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships
title_short Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships
title_sort risk of low energy availability among female and male elite runners competing at the 26th european cross-country championships
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8000897/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33800051
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13030873
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