engleski

Health Related Habits of Croatian Athletes

World health organisation has established the main factors influencing health those being socio-economic factors, way of life and physical environment (WHO, 2003). The risk factors in relation with the way of life are nutrition, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol consumption and use of drugs. Sports in general is usually presumed to be in connection with life quality especially regarding health. Most of the laics would conclude that people involved professionally in sport lead a healthy way of life, take care about their dietary habits and avoid most of the habits that would endanger the health. Athletes would be a typical example of a professional who should be well aware of the basis of healthy living. Though, this has never been scientifically proved and there is a great lack of published papers dealing with this issue. The aim of this research is to determine the health related habits of Croatian athletes regarding smoking and alcohol consumption. Methods Respondents of this study were active athletes (n=100) of both genders. Methods used in this study were for this occasion specially designed questionnaire for smoking habits and alcohol consumption determination. The questionnaire was completed anonymously. The obtained data were analyzed by standard statistical procedures, with statistical software package SPSS 13.0. Results and discussion According to the results it is obvious that wide adopted opinion about athletes having good health habits is not so truth. Concerning the smoking habits it was found that 17% of the athletes are smokers with no differences regarding the gender. The majority of female athletes (75%) stated that that they are smoking between 5 and 10 cigarettes per day, while among the male athletes dominate those who are smoking between 10 and 20 cigarettes per day (55.6%). The percentage of athletes consuming alcohol, mostly beer and wine, is much greater, even 80%. There is no statistically significant difference among the genders. It is concerning that even among those younger than 18 is a high number of those consuming alcohol (85.3% females and 77.8% males). It seems that athletes are not engaged in occasional heavy drinking. Although this study is showing somewhat lower values of smokers and athletes consuming alcohol than some previous studies conducted in Croatia it is still troubling number especially in the view that athletes are many times ideals for young population.

health ; habits ; athletes

nije evidentirano