摘要：The aim of this study was to determine the health habits of Croatian female basketball players considering the ranking of the competition. The study included 153 female basketball players of which79 are competing in the first and 74 in the second Croatian League. To gain the insight into the nutrition habits, habits of smoking and alcohol consumption were used questionnaires based on Croatian and international studies. Height and body mass were measured among morphological characteristics and the value of body mass index (BMI) was calculated. The first basketball league players are in the average age of 21.9 years, with an average height of 179.14cm, weight of 70.68 pounds and average BMI of 21.99. There were 17.72% smokers among the players of the first female basketball league and 14.86% among the players of the second basketball league. Most of them smoked "light" cigarettes, less than 5 per day or 5 to10 cigarettes per day. On the other hand, about 37% of female first-league players and about 44% of the other basketball league had no habit of drinking alcoholic beverages. The first division basketball player consume alcohol mainly one to two times a week and drink beer, spirits and wine while a small part of them drink three to five times a week. None of them drink alcohol daily. The second division female players usually consume spirits 1-2 times a week and to a lesser extent beer and wine. Smoking and alcohol consumption is positively related, it is more frequent in the first division basketball player and older basketball players. Female basketball players smoke less than average Croatian female population, but what concerns is that they drink more than their peers. Therefore it is necessary to pay particular attention to the very early education of basketball players about the risks of tobacco and alcohol.
