Knowledge and attitudes to vitamin D and sun exposure in elite New Zealand athletes: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundSun safety and vitamin D status are important for prolonged health. They are of particular interest to those working with athletes for whom for whom safe sun practices maybe limited.The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe the attitudes of elite New Zealand athletes to both vitamin D and sun exposure.Methods110 elite New Zealand outdoor athletes volunteered to participate in an interview with a trained interviewer. The interviewer asked the athletes questions on their Vitamin D knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding sun exposure as well as their concerns about skin cancer.ResultsAthletes were more concerned about their risk of skin cancer (66%) than their vitamin D status (6%). Although the majority (97%) were aware of Vitamin D and could identify the sun as a source (76%) only 17% could name another source of Vitamin D.Only 10 (9%) reported always applying sunscreen before going out in the sun. No athlete reported reapplying sunscreen every hour and 25 suggesting that they never reapply sunscreen.ConclusionsAthletes are concerned about skin cancer however, their use of sunscreen is not optimal suggesting reapplication of sunscreen could be targeted in order to reduce the risk of sun cancer. Awareness of sources of Vitamin D other than the sun may also need to be improved potentially through educational interventions and possibly in conjunction with sun smart messages.

What Do People Know and Believe about Vitamin D?

“…Although 30% of participants did not mention sun exposure (primary source of VitD [40]), this source was the most frequently cited, consistently with previous studies in which high proportions of people associated sunshine with VitD [19,24,28,29,32,34,35]. …”

“…In our population, as in previous studies [19,21,28,29,32,33,34,35,36], knowledge regarding VitD dietary sources was insufficient and contrasted, depending on the source. Fatty fish, cod liver oil or fortified dairy products were known by 50%–60% of our participants while regular dairy products, offal or eggs were only known by 20%–30%.…”

“…Some confusion was also observed since 18% of participants cited olive oil and 5%–10% lean fish or chicken while they contain no/very little VitD. Incorrect VitD sources such as fruits, vegetables, soya or rice were also cited in previous studies [28,32,34,36]. …”

“…Such information would be of interest for practitioners and public health institutions to improve the communication regarding VitD. Previous studies performed in several countries (mostly targeting specific groups) showed that VitD-related knowledge was limited [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]. To our knowledge, no study was performed in a large European sample from the general population and few linked VitD-related knowledge to various individual characteristics (including measured VitD status).…”

Vitamin D deficiency among high school female students in Riyadh

“…knowing that it was essential for musculoskeletal health and that sunlight was beneficial. On the other hand, in Riyadh high schools, students reported high awareness of vitamin D and good knowledge about the benefit of sunlight [11,12]; that is due to background and educational level of students [13][14][15]. Knowledge about vitamin D was almost high.…”