Diet and bone health in jockeys
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Dietary habits and vitamin D status of professional jockeys: interventions to reduce body fat and improve bone health
IRAS ID
147740
Contact name
George Wilson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool John Moores University
Research summary
Professional jockeys are unique amongst weight-making athletes as they are required to make weight daily and often all-year round. Common weight-making practices include food deprivation, acute and chronic dehydration, forced vomiting, laxatives and diuretics. These practices have been reported to have deleterious effects upon physical health, particularly bone health (Waldron-Lynch et al., 2010; Wilson et al., 2013a), and markers of mental health in impaired mood-profiles (Caulfield & Karageorghis, 2008; Wilson et al., 2013a).
From analysis of food diaries, jockeys tend to eat sporadically and rely on convenience foods and therefore can be assessed as having a poor understanding of basic nutrition. Additionally, through these poor food choices, jockeys also have higher levels of body fat than other weight (Morton et al., 2010) and non-weight making (Sutton et al., 2009)athletes and therefore have the potential to reduce body fat that may then reduce the incidences of starving and/or sweating. This latter point has been proven in work by Wilson et al. (2012) whereby a professional Jump jockey reduced his body mass by 8 kg in 9 wks using a structured and scientifically devised diet and exercise intervention which increased his daily meals from 2 to 6 but changed the food composition. This intervention now requires expanding in larger groups of jockeys.In addition to the poor dietary practices of jockeys, previous research on the bone health of jockeys, has reported very low vitamin D status in significant numbers of both Flat and Jump jockeys, and increased markers of bone turnover (Waldron-Lynch et al., 2010; Wilson et al., 2013a). Given the important role of vitamin D in both optimal bone health and muscular function there is also the potential to improve both with a corrective intervention
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/0155
Date of REC Opinion
18 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion