ArticleSports medicine - open2023
Evaluating the Suitability of the Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) for Female Football Players.
Article in Sports medicine - open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- A study for markers of low energy availability in athletes: a meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Article
- Comparing RMR-Derived Proxy Indicators and LEAF-Q for Detecting Low Energy Availability Risk in Mixed-Sport Female Athletes.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Rethinking Energy Availability from Conceptual Models to Applied Practice: A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Protecting women's health in sport: the role of low energy availability in the Female Athlete Triad and RED-S.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Review
- Prevalence of physically active females at risk for the female athlete triad in Spain.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Article
- The impact of low energy availability risk on pre-competition physiological function in Chinese female combat athletes.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Article
- Screening tool for the identification of relative energy deficiency in Sport risk: validation of the low energy availability in female questionnaire - Italian version (LEAFQ-ITA).Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Article
- Article
- Association of LEAF-Q and EDE-QS scores with cholesterol levels in Finnish female athletes.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2024Article
- Patterns of energy availability and carbohydrate intake differentiate between adaptable and problematic low energy availability in female athletes.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Article
- Body dissatisfaction, disordered eating and exercise behaviours: associations with symptoms of REDs in male and female athletes.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) is a screening tool developed to detect endurance athletes and dancers at risk for development of persistent low energy availability (LEA) and the female athlete triad (Triad). This study investigated the applicability of the LEAF-Q in a cohort of sixty professional female football players.
methodsThe participants were classified as at risk (≥ 8) or not at risk (< 8) for persistent LEA and the Triad according to their LEAF-Q score, before being compared. Receiver operating curves were then conducted to examine the ability of the overall LEAF-Q and subcategories to correctly determine the presence of clinically defined markers of the Triad. Additionally, Youden's index was calculated to determine the best fitting cut-off values.
resultsThirty-two percent of participants were classified as at risk by the LEAF-Q. We found no statistically significant differences between the two groups for any markers associated with persistent LEA. Except for acceptable accuracy in determining menstrual status, all other LEAF-Q components exhibited poor accuracy and predictive values. Youden's index scores imply that increasing the overall and injury cut-off values to ≥ 10 and ≥ 5 respectively, would yield increased performance.
conclusionsOur findings do not support the use of the LEAF-Q for the purpose of detecting LEA and Triad conditions among female football players.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.