Doping knowledge and doping attitudes in competitive bodybuilding

Abstract

Purpose: Bodybuilding becomes more visible and acceptable within mainstream society thanks to social media, which is promoting, and developing grooving interest in bodies, fit-ness and active lifestyle. However, this is concerning knowing that according to the latest world anti-doping agency report bodybuilding is one of two sports with the highest number of Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) committed by athletes. This study aimed to evaluate doping attitudes and correlates of doping attitudes in top level body builders. Methods: Study included 26 competitive bodybuilders form Croatia. Variables were collect-ed by a previously validated Questionnaire of Substance Use (QSU). Statistical procedures included means and standard deviations (for parametric variables), frequencies and percent-ages (for ordinal and nominal variables). Spearman’s correlations were calculated to deter-mine associations between studied variables. Results: The most positive attitudes are found towards injectable anabolic steroids (mean ± standard deviation; 4.00 ± 1.52), followed by fat burners (3.73 ± 1.46), growth hormone (3.69 ± 1.64), and estrogen blockers (3.60 ± 1.22), oral anabolic steroids (3.58 ± 1.27). Sig-nificant correlation was identified between: (i) result achieved in bodybuilding (RBB) and alcohol consumption, (R= -0.57 p < 0.05) (ii) RBB and subjective knowledge on nutrition (R=0.66, p < 0.05), (iii) RBB and subjective knowledge on doping (R=0.72, p < 0.05). Conclusion: The lack of correlation between self-perceived competence and objectively eval-uated knowledge on nutrition is alarming due to the possible “anchoring effect”, accordingly even though objective knowledge is not correlated with attitudes towards doping substances, it is important to properly educate athletes who are in the misconception of their true knowl-edge.