Evaluation of Pragmatic Methods to Rapidly Assess Habitual Beverage Intake and Hydration Status in U.S. Collegiate Athletes.

Fluid intake recommendations have been established for the athletic population in order to promote adequate hydration. The Beverage Intake Questionnaire (BEVQ-15) is a quick and reliable food frequency questionnaire that quantifies habitual beverage intake, which has been validated in children, adolescents, and adults. However, no validated beverage consumption questionnaire is available for collegiate athletes. Urine color (UC), while feasible for determining hydration status, has not been validated within a variety of collegiate athletes. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the comparative validity and reliability of pragmatic methods to rapidly assess BEVQ-15 and UC rating in U.S. Division I collegiate athletes. Student-athletes (n = 120; 54% females; age 19 ± 1 years) from two universities were recruited to complete three study sessions. At the first and third sessions, the participants completed the BEVQ-15 and provided a urine sample to determine UC and urinary specific gravity. All sessions included completion of a 24-hr dietary recall. Total fluid intake (fl oz) was 111 ± 107 and 108 ± 42 using the BEVQ-15 and the mean of three 24-hr dietary recalls, respectively, which was not different between methods (p > .05). There were moderate associations between the BEVQ-15 and dietary recall results for total beverage intake fl oz and kcal(r = .413 and r = 4.65; p ≤ .05, respectively). Strong associations were noted between both researcher-rated and participant-rated UC with urinary specific gravity measures (r = .675 and r = .884; p ≤ .05, respectively). Therefore, these rapid assessment methods demonstrated acceptable validity and may be used as practical methods to determine whether athletes are meeting their hydration recommendations.