A comparison of nutrition knowledge and attitudes, dietary practices, and bone densities of postmenopausal women, female college athletes, and nonathletic college women.

This study evaluated the nutrition knowledge and attitudes, dietary practices, and bone densities of four groups of women: 18 postmenopausal women, 14 college-aged dancers, 13 members of a college track team, and 14 nonathletic college women. Subjects completed a personal information questionnaire, a 24-hour food recall, a food frequency questionnaire, a nutrition knowledge test, and an attitude survey; measurements of the subjects' spinal bone density were also taken. The mean (+/- 0.5 standard error [SEM]) nutrition knowledge score of the dancers (22.5) was significantly lower than the mean scores of the postmenopausal women (28.5), the nonathletes (29.7), and the track team members (26.5). Dancers also reported eating fewer mean (+/- 4.0 SEM) servings of high-calcium foods per month (43) than did postmenopausal women (77), nonathletes (66), or track team members (73). Track team members had a significantly higher mean (+/- 0.2 SEM) anorexia/bulimia score (3.7) than did postmenopausal women (2.5), nonathletes (2.1), or dancers (2.2). There were no significant differences in bone mineral density among the four groups. The number of servings of high-calcium foods eaten was significantly correlated with nutrition knowledge scores (r = .38) and attitude scores (R = .32), but nutrition knowledge and attitude scores were not significantly correlated with each other. The track team members exercised significantly more than women in all other groups--mean (+/- 40 SEM) minutes exercise time was 700 minutes/week for track team members, 79 minutes/week for postmenopausal women, 92 minutes/week for nonathletes, and 500 minutes/week for dancers--and also experienced the most amenorrhea.