Female athletes are a largely underrepresented group in sports medicine, according to the National Institutes of Health, which led a University of Rhode Island doctoral candidate to study the effects of relative energy deficiency on these athletes.
Relative energy deficiency is the mismatch between energy intake from calories and energy expenditure during exercise, which leads to energy needs not being met, according to Melissa Lodge, doctoral candidate in the kinesiology department.
REDs is more prevalent in female athletes, making them one of the most at risk populations for the condition, according to Lodge. Part of her dissertation is surveying if educational intervention can help prevent REDs in Division I female athletes.
30 candidates were randomized into two groups, half of these athletes would be provided with supplementary educational materials about REDs, and the other half would be the control group, according to Christie Ward-Ritacco, associate professor in the department of kinesiology and program director for the health sciences doctorate program, who oversees the study.
“We want to see how this works in a small group of female athletes in Rhode Island,” Ward-Ritacco said. “Potentially the next application of this project would be to bring it to all athletes in the URI system and then keep expanding across institutions.”
Once the study ends, all of the athletes who participated will receive the educational material after the post-study visit.
“Very few female athletes really know about these conditions and overall we wanted to improve their understanding of REDs,” Lodge said. “We hope that that knowledge [about REDs] can extend to better behaviors in fueling and exercise.”
One of Lodge’s primary motivations for conducting this study is the underrepresentation of female athletes in sports science and medicine, because according to Lodge, only 10% of sports science research is done within female populations.
“We really value the athlete experience,” Lodge said. “We have an invested interest in making physical activity safe and effective and protecting young girls from the consequences of underfueling.”
Participants went in for a preliminary visit so Lodge could collect data on their basic health and functioning, body composition scans and resting metabolic rate, according to Emma Barnhart, a third-year student and member of the URI rowing team. Barnhart took part in the study.
“Because I’m a rower, just knowing all my body composition is really interesting to me,” Barnhart said. “[The researchers] said they would give us all their data at the end of the study and I will be able to see all my body composition which I would like to see for myself.”
Lodge has not completed the study but has seen anecdotally that some issues of REDs may come from female athletes comparing themselves to their peers, especially in what they eat.
“Whether that’s comparing plates which is often the case, comparing diets, comparing bodies or comparing themselves to their teammates, professional athletes and other people in society,” Lodge said.
There are some medical steps that can be taken to prevent REDs such as dietitian and mental health professional support, as well as medication to help mitigate the physiological consequences they are experiencing from heavy exercise, according to Lodge.
“[These medical interventions are] great and very needed but that’s not very practical when you’re thinking about an entire athletic department with 500 plus student athletes,” Lodge said. “We want to find a low barrier to entry so we can support as many of those athletes as possible.”
All participants will return for post-study visits in April and May.
