Food Insecurity among a Cohort of Division I Student-Athletes.

Background: Though the vulnerability of college students to food insecurity is well established, there is a paucity of studies focusing on the prevalence of food insecurity among student-athletes. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with collegiate athletes in the northwestern United States via an anonymous online survey. Food security status was assessed using the 10-item US Department of Agriculture Adult Food Security Survey. Results: Participating athletes (45/307, 14%) were primarily White, non-Hispanic (78%) females (73%) who lived and consumed meals off-campus (62% and 69%, respectively). Food insecurity was more prevalent among collegiate athletes than the general university population, 60% vs. 42%, respectively. Being a track or football athlete significantly predicted food security status (p = 0.002, p < 0.001, respectively). The risk for food insecurity was higher among collegiate football players (effect size, η2 = 0.86) compared with track athletes (effect size, η2 = 0.40). Conclusion: A statistically significant risk for food insecurity emerged among members of the football team. Factors contributing to disparate rates of food insecurity among college populations were explored and unique considerations for collegiate athletes discussed.

Diet Quality and Mental Health Status among Division 1 Female Collegiate Athletes during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The International Olympic Committee has identified mental health as a priority that significantly affects the physical health and safety of collegiate athletes. Interventions that improve diet quality have been shown to improve mental health in several populations. However, studies are needed to examine this relationship in female collegiate athletes, who have elevated risk of experiencing anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as dietary insufficiencies. In a quantitative, cross-sectional study, female student athletes at a U.S. university completed three mental health questionnaires: Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Athlete Psychological Strain Questionnaire (APSQ), and COVID Stress Scales (CSS). Each female athlete also completed a validated, web-based Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ-III) resulting in a Healthy Eating Index (HEI). Seventy-seven participants completed all survey information. HEI scores were consistently higher for athletes with poorer mental health. HEI scores were significantly positively associated with stress (p = 0.015), performance concerns (p = 0.048), CSS components of danger (p = 0.007), contamination (p = 0.006), and traumatic stress (p = 0.003). Although findings support statistically significant associations among dietary quality and mental health indicators, including broad symptom severity or stressors specific to athletics or COVID-19, these associations were in the opposite direction hypothesized. Possible reasons for results and suggestions for future research are discussed.

N400-like magnetoencephalography responses modulated by semantic context, word frequency, and lexical class in sentences.

Words have been found to elicit a negative potential at the scalp peaking at approximately 400 ms that is strongly modulated by semantic context. The current study used whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) as male subjects read sentences ending with semantically congruous or incongruous words. Compared with congruous words, sentence-terminal incongruous words consistently evoked a large magnetic field over the left hemisphere, peaking at approximately 450 ms. Source modeling at this latency with conventional equivalent current dipoles (ECDs) placed the N400 m generator in or near the left superior temporal sulcus. A distributed solution constrained to the cortical surface suggested a sequence of differential activation, beginning in Wernicke's area at approximately 250 ms, spreading to anterior temporal sites at approximately 270 ms, to Broca's area by approximately 300 ms, to dorsolateral prefrontal cortices by approximately 320 ms, and to anterior orbital and frontopolar cortices by approximately 370 ms. Differential activity was exclusively left-sided until >370 ms, and then involved right anterior temporal and orbital cortices. At the peak of the N400 m, activation in the left hemisphere was estimated to be widespread in the anterior temporal, perisylvian, orbital, frontopolar, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. In the right hemisphere, the orbital, as well as, weakly, the right anterior temporal cortices were activated. Similar but weaker field patterns were evoked by intermediate words in the sentences, especially to low-frequency words occurring in early sentence positions where there is little preceding context. The locations of the N400 m sources identified with the distributed solution correspond well with those previously demonstrated with direct intracranial recordings, and suggested by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). These results help identify a distributed cortical network that supports online semantic processing.