Study on the Prevelance of Doping Usage in Student Athlete Circles

Most of the participants think that using prohibited substances is considered a kind of fraud and deceit. This consistent with French study which displayed that 90 % of elite student athletes were considered doping a kind of dishonest (Peretti-Watel et al. 2004). While this percent is higher than that reported by others (30.2 %) (Pavlović and Idrizović 2013). It could be argued that students are aware of the fact that the use of banned substances considers cheating, and that could reflect their anti-doping attitudes. However, it looks that there is a considerable difference between what they say and what they really think, which is considered a major limitation (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013).

Knowledge about Doping and Welcoming for Education

Less than one third of the studied population indicated that they had heard of the IOC/WADA list of banned substances. High percent of them failed to mention a drug in the banned list although they indicated yes. This was consistent with previous survey which was performed on athletes from four countries (Australia, Canada, the UK and the US) and declared that only about one third (35%) identified correctly the status of substances on the prohibited list (Mottram et al. 2008). While other studies recorded high percent in this regard (Pavlović and Idrizović 2013).

Although more than two third reported that they are aware about world anti-doping program, less than one third could mention the role of this program. While other study was performed on Saudi players denoted that (56%) are aware that there is some world anti-doping program to support athletes (Al Ghobain et al. 2016).

With focusing on these results, it has to raise the alarm to provide those students such important knowledge as early as possible. This could highlight the importance of early integration of such knowledge in their curriculum with providence of regular updated lists of banned substances, acceptable medicines and supplements. Effective educational strategy should include open discussion and consultation from well educated person. Consideration of open discussions is important to accommodate for specific individual questions during education with acceptance of individual consultations even on dietary supplement use (Erdman et al. 2007; De Hon et al. 2011). Gender differences should be also considered. The optimal education has to be based on both ethics and science (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013). This came in line with opinions of most of the students (>90%) in the present study regarding the importance of knowledge about doping to physical education students in their career and general life.

Reasons of Use & Beliefs Regarding Doping

One of the most priorities of WADA is a better understanding of the causes of doping behavior (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013). In the present study, the most frequently chosen reason for doping was the considerable pressure on the athlete by expectations of others and even society itself. Around 14.8% of respondents in the present study believed that using of doping substances are efficacious in improving performance and considered the reason behind the usage. Other studies reported that most common reasons were to increase performance, social recognition and achieve athletic success (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013). This came in line with the opinions of students who reported self doping use. Overall, the motives for using prohibited substances were sorted into two main categories. The first category highlights physiological aspects (for example: increasing endurance, strength, removing tiredness, injury and/or lack of training). The second category integrates the psycho-sociological elements, such as achieving external goods, societal expectation, pressure to win, and personal desire to be acknowledged (Petróczi and Aidman 2009).

Alternatively, it is important to draw attention that doping may be introduced outside the sphere of competitive sport by trained physically fit persons (Pedersen 2010) as mentioned by some students (5%) in the present study. Another important example, it may involve drug abuse without the intent of performance enhancement just as any non-athlete may (Reardon and Creado 2014).

The majority of students in the present study (85.1%) are considered doping use as a form of addiction. This result was in the same direction of other studies which also considered it as public health problem (Pavlović and Idrizović 2013). In terms of health consequences, most of students reported that using doping substances have negative health consequences. This percentage was very close to others who displayed that doping is unhealthy and pose a risk to health and their use is against the ethical spirit of sport (Mottram et al. 2008; Peretti-Watel et al. 2004). On the other hand, this result is higher than others (74%, 36.7%) (Al Ghobain et al. 2016; Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013). It was stated that comparisons between elite athletes and general populations, or even between athletes in different types of sports, should be made with caution because elite athletes have different objectives, motivations, knowledge, necessities, pressures, and other external stressors placed on elite athletes, which could lead them to behave in a different ways (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013).

In this study, opinion of respondents was to some extent split in regard with doping by some of the current top athletes. That is inconsistent with results of previous study in which all the participants believe that some of the current top athletes were taking some sort of banned substances. This could reflect a negative perception about top sports in this young group. This has a significant impact on their motivation and their future careers (Pavlović and Idrizović 2013). Interestingly, the second most common cause for using banned substances in the present study was the belief that others use the same or similar substances. In this context, athletes who have similar belief are more likely to begin using them too, which could start a vicious cycle that propagates the pro-doping culture. So surrounding people must be very cautious about false consensus effect when talking about doping and prevent exaggeration of the supposed use of banned substance among those who achieve success (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013).

Attitudes towards Doping Control and Testing

In the present study, more than one third think that current doping controls cannot detect the athletes who took dope. While more than half of the students confirm that there is a way to deceive the doping control tests. Similar results were also obtained by other authors (Pavlović and Idrizović 2013). On the other hand, higher results were obtained from elite athletes (Alaranta et al. 2006). These results suggest that there is no trust among students about the reliability of anti-doping controls and their application (Pavlović and Idrizović 2013). From prevention point of view, the only way to truly minimize the doping culture and cases on middle to long term is education. The education is needed to correct and stabilize attitudes towards doping at an early stage of an athlete’s career. It has to educate athletes how to psychologically resist any pressure to engage in doping, even among current or past user. It also enables them to make informed decisions concerning any drug use (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013).

Sports and Doping Scandals

The doping status in many sports has been examined in several studies. In the present study, the most infected sports by doping were related to athletics and Judo. This is consistent with most of previous studies' results as athletics took first place (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013; Pavlović and Idrizović 2013). The least marked sports with doping scandals in the present study were related to swimming, football, then fencing. While in other study the most responses were related to sports games, archery, and tennis (Pavlović and Idrizović 2013).

It was reported that any anonymous self-reported questionnaires even with psychometric testing could have limited scientific reliability. The data collected using self-report questionnaires should be interpreted with caution because the answers may be intentionally false as the respondents may not wish to expose that they or their team mates use drugs, even under the guarantee of anonymity and confidentiality (Morente-Sánchez and Zabala 2013).

In conclusion, the results of present study provide a preliminary data about attitudes, beliefs and knowledge of a group from physical education students toward doping to understand the problem in this locality and consequently help in prevention of doping in respect to their culture and locality. The prevalence among students in the present study is minimal but it is significantly high among surrounding peoples. The most of student have anti-doping attitudes but there is a shortage in their knowledge.

They believe in the importance of such knowledge especially for their specialty. They suggest doping use mostly owing to cause of psycho-sociological element while group of personal doing use reported that mainly due to a very strong desire to achieve the best results. Most of them do not have trust toward doping control and testing with blurred belief concerning top athletes. Early integration of effective educational updated courses about doping is recommended to protect them from false knowledge that could receive from non professional person. As providing true knowledge is valuable and important for the vitality and maturity of their belief and attitude which shape their ideas and minds. The outcome affects them and society as a whole.