Advisory Committee Chair
Jose R Fernandez
Advisory Committee Members
Brenda Bertrand
Paula Chandler-Laney
Gregory Pavela
Drew Sayer
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2022
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Health Professions
Abstract
Body composition measurements are collected periodically in the collegiate athletic setting to evaluate health and predict athletic performance of individual athletes. However, the effects of remote training and food insecurity on body composition have yet to be fully investigated in this population. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the influence of remote training and food security status on body composition and performance changes during off-season training. Aims 1 and 2 focus specifically on how factors affect body composition changes in collegiate football players during off-season training. Data were collected from routine body composition testing and food security screening in a southeastern collegiate athletic department and ANCOVA was utilized for data analysis. Aim 1 evaluates the effect of remote training during COVID-19 quarantine on body composition changes during off-season training. Results showed a significant difference in changes in muscle mass between the remote training group and the on-campus training group that were evaluated during the same training cycle one year later. Aim 2 evaluates the effect of food security status on body composition changes in this population. While no significant differences were reported in body composition changes between groups, food insecurity prevalence was high and was statistically different between racial groups with black athletes having higher levels of food insecurity than white athletes. Aim 3 evaluated the effect of food security status on the relationship between body composition and performance. Linear regression was used to evaluate the moderation effect of food security status on this relationship. Our analysis did not reveal a significant moderation effect of food insecurity on the relationship between body composition and performance. The findings of this dissertation suggest that in person training on campus with peers and athletic resources is more effective than training remotely, although results should be interpreted with caution given that remote training occurred during COVID-19 disruption. Additional research evaluating dietary intake and university nutrition resources utilization in combination with food security status in a larger sample is needed to further evaluate the effect of food insecurity on collegiate athletes.
Recommended Citation
Stowers, Kathryn Lee, "Contributions of Off-Season Training and Food Security Status on Body Composition and Performance in Collegiate Football Players" (2022). All ETDs from UAB. 50.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/50