The impact of a COM-B Behaviour Change Programme on enhancing nutritional knowledge and intakes in female recreational football

Background Current research has identified that female football players do not eat enough and have lower than recommended intakes of energy and carbohydrate. Poor nutrition has been linked to low levels of sports nutrition knowledge. Behaviour change is required to enable recreational players to improve their nutritional knowledge and intakes in line with the recommendations. There have been no studies which have assessed the effect of a behaviour change intervention on nutritional knowledge and intakes in female recreational footballers. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an intervention utilising the COM-B behaviour change model on improving knowledge and dietary intakes in female footballers. Players were assessed pre-intervention (n = 54) and post-intervention (n = 20) to assess changes in knowledge, intakes and the risk of low energy availability following a behaviour change intervention. Results There were no significant differences found after the COM-B intervention for knowledge, energy intake and LEAF-Q score (F = .555, p = .647). Further analysis showed a moderate effect of the intervention for sports nutrition knowledge (d = .469), energy availability (d = .432) and carbohydrate intake (d = .419) suggesting an intervention effect. Conclusion Although the results did not reach statistical significance the moderate effect sizes observed suggest that a nutritional intervention, using the COM-B behaviour change model, may have practical relevance in improving nutritional knowledge and intakes in recreational female football players.