Nutrition Education for Parents of Athletes Through Smartwebcalc Technology Application

Abstract

Background: As many as 50% of adolescent athletes still have insufficient nutritional intake. It can hinder the optimal performance of athletes. Food intake in adolescent athletes still depends on the family diet prepared by parents. Many parents of athletes still don't know and practice good menus. Information technology is very possible to use for educational media. Smartwebcalc is one of the academic media that facilitates parents of athletes in calculating nutritional needs and the application of the right menu according to the age category, gender, and activity of athletes.
Methods: Education was conducted on 27 parents of Maguwoharjo Football Academy athletes. Education was held in June 2024 at Maguwoharjo Football Park. The educational material provided is education on the urgency of fulfilling balanced nutrition for youth soccer athletes, estimating the nutritional and fluid needs of youth soccer athletes, setting a balanced menu based on training periodization, and using smartwebcalc in setting a balanced menu. Data were analyzed using statistical software with the Wilcoxon sign rank test.
Results: The pretest score was 95 (80-100) with a maximum score of 100 as many as two people (7.4%). The posttest score is 95 (80-100) with the number of respondents who have a score of 100 being as many as ten people (37%). There was an effect of education through the smartwebcalc technology application on increasing knowledge in parents of athletes (p=0.026).
Conclusion: Education using smartwebcalc technology can effectively increase knowledge in parents of Maguwoharjo Football Academy athletes.