Health Behaviours in Soccer Support Staff: 24-Hour Movement Adherence Is Positively Associated with Diet Quality

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Public Health
• Nutritional Science

Background:

• Soccer support staff face demanding schedules impacting their lifestyle behaviors.
• Research on the movement behaviors and diet quality of soccer support staff is limited.
• Understanding these behaviors is crucial for optimizing staff well-being in high-performance environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess adherence to the Canadian 24-Hour Movement (24HM) guidelines among professional and semi-professional soccer support staff.
• To investigate the association between 24HM guideline adherence and diet quality (DQ) in this population.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 236 soccer support staff in the UK and Spain.
• Movement behaviors were assessed using the Whole Day Matters Toolkit.
• Diet quality was measured using the Mini-EAT questionnaire, and a graded 24HM score was calculated.

Main Results:

• Only 7.6% of participants met all eight 24HM guidelines.
• A higher graded 24HM score was significantly associated with improved DQ (p=0.004).
• Secondary movement behaviors demonstrated a stronger association with DQ than general behaviors.

Conclusions:

• A graded approach to 24HM guideline adherence shows a positive association with diet quality in soccer support staff.
• Secondary movement behaviors appear particularly important for diet quality in this group.
• Findings are exploratory and suggest hypothesis-generating avenues for future research.