The Development of Nutritional Supplement Fact Sheets for Irish Athletes: A Case Study

The use of sports supplements presents a dilemma for many of those involved in supporting athletes, including coaches, families, support staff and the athletes themselves. Often the information that they source can be incorrect and promote a bias view regarding the use of nutritional supplements. The aim of this case study was to describe the process that occurred around the development of a series of targeted educational factsheets on a range of nutritional supplements for Irish athletes. It describes the initiation and support of the process by the Irish Sports Council, one of its subgroups, The Food and Food Supplements Committee, and the Irish Institute of Sport. A needs assessment through questionnaires was carried out to establish the most commonly used sports nutrition supplements by athletes, aged sixteen or over in Ireland. One hundred and five questionnaires were completed over a 4-month period in 2008-2009 that lead to the production of 20 supplement fact sheets. These supplement fact sheets will enable Irish athletes to access high quality, up to date, scientific information regarding the supplements they have reported consuming. Since personal reading had a strong influence over the athlete's decision-making process for taking nutritional supplements, as did scientific research, fact sheets available on the internet from a reliable source is an ideal way to educate Irish athletes.