Finnegan Emma, Daly Ed, Ryan Lisa
Department of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, Atlantic Technological University, Galway, Ireland.
Curr Dev Nutr. 2025 Jul 24;9(9):107507. doi: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2025.107507. eCollection 2025 Sep.
Nutrition underpins athletic performance, enhancing training, reducing injury risk, and accelerating recovery. In the event of an injury, performance dietitians (PDs) and nutritionists' (PNs) play a vital role by tailoring nutritional strategies to support tissue repair, optimize athlete's recoveries, and return to play.
This study explored nutritional strategies recommended and employed by Irish PDs and PNs to assess, manage, and support athletes during the initial stages of sports-related injuries.
Seventeen PDs and PNs across Ireland participated in semistructured interviews. All interviews were transcribed verbatim, and an inductive qualitative content analysis was applied to identify initial codes and extract relevant insights from data.
PDs and PNs in Ireland work across various sports and competitive levels. Their capacity to support injured athletes is influenced by contextual factors, particularly the quality of communication and interdisciplinary collaboration within their sporting environments. Participants reported variability in their initial injury assessment and nutrition management practices across sports, organizations, and genders. These inconsistencies influence the implementation of nutrition strategies and impact athletes' subsequent recovery outcomes. In particular, limited or nonspecific nutritional support was linked slower or less effective recovery.
The diversity in nutritional strategies employed by Irish PDs and PNs during the initial stages of injury management highlights the need for standardized, sport- and context-specific protocols to optimize recovery outcomes. Implementing evidence-based guidelines, consistency using structured assessment tools, and enhancing multidisciplinary collaboration may reduce inconsistencies and improve support for injured athletes, particularly in resource-constrained settings. Practitioner-informed strategies such as injury-specific checklists, routine assessments, coordinated care with medical teams, and targeted nutrition education, may enhance athlete buy-in and promote more effective, recovery focused interventions.
营养是运动表现的基础，可加强训练、降低受伤风险并加速恢复。在受伤的情况下，运动营养师（PDs）和营养学家（PNs）通过制定营养策略来支持组织修复、优化运动员的恢复并使其重返赛场，发挥着至关重要的作用。
本研究探讨了爱尔兰运动营养师和营养学家推荐并采用的营养策略，以评估、管理和支持与运动相关损伤初期阶段的运动员。
爱尔兰各地的17名运动营养师和营养学家参与了半结构化访谈。所有访谈均逐字记录，并采用归纳定性内容分析法来识别初始代码并从数据中提取相关见解。
爱尔兰的运动营养师和营养学家在各种运动项目和竞技水平中开展工作。他们支持受伤运动员的能力受到背景因素的影响，特别是其运动环境中的沟通质量和跨学科协作。参与者报告称，他们在不同运动项目、组织和性别中的初始损伤评估和营养管理实践存在差异。这些不一致性影响了营养策略的实施，并对运动员随后的恢复结果产生影响。特别是，有限或非特定的营养支持与恢复较慢或效果较差有关。
爱尔兰运动营养师和营养学家在损伤管理初期采用的营养策略的多样性凸显了制定标准化、针对运动项目和具体情况的方案以优化恢复结果的必要性。实施基于证据的指南、使用结构化评估工具保持一致性以及加强多学科协作，可能会减少不一致性并改善对受伤运动员的支持，特别是在资源有限的环境中。诸如特定损伤检查表、常规评估、与医疗团队的协调护理以及有针对性的营养教育等基于从业者经验的策略，可能会提高运动员的接受度，并促进更有效、以恢复为重点的干预措施。
