What drives athletes toward dietary supplement use: Objective knowledge or self-perceived competence? Cross-sectional analysis of professional team-sport players from Southeastern Europe during the competitive season

BackgroundIssues related to knowledge of nutrition and dietary supplementation(DS) are understudied in professional athletes. This study aimed to examine the possible association between knowledge of nutrition and DS (KN&DS) and dietary supplement use (DSU) among professional athletes involved in team sports.MethodsThe sample comprised professional team-sport athletes (N=912, age: 22.113.37years, 356 females) involved in four Olympic sports: basketball (N=228), soccer (N=324), volleyball (N=154), and handball (N=206). The participants were tested by previously validated questionnaires to examine their self-perceived competence on nutrition and DS (S/KN&DS), their objectively evaluated (tested) KN&DS (O/KN&DS), sociodemographic and sport-specific variables (predictors), and DSU (criterion). Associations between the predictors and the criterion (No-DSU - Irregular-DSU - Regular-DSU) were determined by multinomial regression analysis for the total sample and separately for the studied sports.ResultsDSU was found to be less prevalent in older and more successful players. The O/KN&DS and S/KN&DS were positively correlated with DSU, but S/KN&DS was a stronger predictor of DSU than O/KN&DS. Sport-specific associations between predictors and criterion were identified, with stronger correlations in sports with a higher prevalence of DSU.Conclusions Due to the low correlations between O/KN&DS and S/KN&DS in the studied players, this study highlights the necessity for more frequent monitoring of biomarkers of nutritional status and its usage by coaches and practitioners to provide quantitative instruction

Remittances, return, diaspora: framing the debate in the context of Albania and Kosova

This paper is an introduction to the special issue and is in five parts. The first part provides a brief overview of post-1990 migration from Albania as a route out of poverty and a quest for freedom and self-realization for Albanians. The Kosovan migration has a different history: labour migration in the 1960s and early 1970s, refugee flight in the 1990s. Then the authors outline a theoretical framework for migration's contribution to development. Third, this framework is applied to the cases of Albania and Kosova, drawing on findings from the papers in this issue and other literature. The fourth section of the paper revisits the migration-development nexus from a policy perspective, examining in turn remittances, return migration and host- and home-country government responsibilities. Finally, we speculate on the global economic crisis that started in mid-2008 and its impact on the region and its migrants