{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,6]],"date-time":"2026-05-06T18:21:11Z","timestamp":1778091671565,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,7]],"date-time":"2021-03-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1615075200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Athletics","award":["N\/a."],"award-info":[{"award-number":["N\/a."]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Low energy availability (LEA) causes impaired physiological functioning. Cross-country running is a weight-sensitive sport, making athletes more prone to LEA. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of elite European cross-country athletes at risk of LEA using the LEA in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) and to analyze demographic and physical characteristics that are associated with LEA. Athletes \u2265 18 years competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships (n = 602) were invited to complete a questionnaire (sociodemographic, training, anthropometric characteristics, and LEAF-Q). A total of 207 valid surveys were collected (83 females, 22.1 (4.0) years, and 124 males, 22.3 (4.1) years), and 16 surveys were excluded. A high prevalence of athletes at risk of LEA (64.3%) was observed, being higher in females than in males (79.5 and 54.0% respectively, p &lt; 0.001). More than half of athletes (54.1%, n = 112) reported bowel movements once a week or more rarely, while 33 female athletes (41.3%) did not report normal menstruation. Overall, cross-country athletes are at high risk of LEA. Moreover, a high prevalence of gastrointestinal and menstrual impairments was reported. Hence, athletes should be followed by multidisciplinary teams to inform, prevent, and treat LEA and its effects.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu13030873","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,7]],"date-time":"2021-03-07T21:52:15Z","timestamp":1615153935000},"page":"873","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":31,"title":["Risk of Low Energy Availability among Female and Male Elite Runners Competing at the 26th European Cross-Country Championships"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Filipe","family":"Jesus","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition &amp; Metabolism, NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias M\u00e9dicas, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campo dos M\u00e1rtires da P\u00e1tria, 1169-056 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Exercise and Health Laboratory, CIPER, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada da Costa, 1499-002 Cruz-Quebrada, Portugal"}]},{"given":"In\u00eas","family":"Castela","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition &amp; Metabolism, NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias M\u00e9dicas, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campo dos M\u00e1rtires da P\u00e1tria, 1169-056 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"CINTESIS, NOVA Medical School, NMS, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1169-056 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8984-8600","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Analiza M","family":"Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Exercise and Health Laboratory, CIPER, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada da Costa, 1499-002 Cruz-Quebrada, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Pedro A.","family":"Branco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical &amp; Anti-Doping Commission, European Athletics, CH-1003 Lausanne, Switzerland"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0945-1409","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"M\u00f3nica","family":"Sousa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition &amp; Metabolism, NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias M\u00e9dicas, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campo dos M\u00e1rtires da P\u00e1tria, 1169-056 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"CINTESIS, NOVA Medical School, NMS, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1169-056 Lisboa, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"72","article-title":"Energy Balance and Energy Availability","volume":"Volume 19","author":"Maughan","year":"2014","journal-title":"The Encyclopaedia of Sports Medicine: An IOC Medical Commission Publication"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"152","DOI":"10.1123\/ijsnem.2018-0201","article-title":"Energy Availability in Athletics: Health, Performance, and Physique","volume":"29","author":"Melin","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. 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