Motives for Illicit Use of Doping Substances Among Athletes Calling a National Antidoping Phone-Help Service: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This study aimed to construct a hierarchy of motives linked to doping behaviors. Between 2000 and 2005, calls to a national antidoping phone-help service by 115 cyclists, 203 bodybuilders, and 40 footballers were analyzed. The results showed that the main motives were preserving health for cyclists, increasing muscular strength for bodybuilders, and personal recreation for footballers. However, in contrast to the literature, group influence was low and health preoccupations were high for cyclists; the influence of body image was relatively low for bodybuilders; and footballers cited muscular strength enhancement as a motive. The study's limitations are noted. The prevention campaigns therefore need to be specific.

The aetiology and trajectory of anabolic-androgenic steroid use initiation: a systematic review and synthesis of qualitative research

“…Moreover, one study each originated from Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Great Britain, and Norway. Twenty-nine studies [6-8,12,19-21,25-27,30-36,38-47,49,51,52] used interviews, six were case studies [14,22,28,29,45,53], one used interviews and focus groups [9], and eight [10,11,13,23,24,37,48,50] used interviews supported by a questionnaire. For the eight studies that used both interviews and questionnaires, we relied on the qualitative results generated from the interviews.…”

“…This emerged in 23 studies [11-14,17,18,21,22,24-27,32,34-37,41,43,45,50,52,55]. It emerged in Maycock and Howat’s study [34] that users:…”

“…The illicit market emerged as a major source of AAS during the initiation of AAS use [8,10,12,19,21,23,24,32,34,35,39,42,46,51]. The immediate social networks of respondents such as intimate partners, relatives, as well as friends or teammates also emerged as important sources of AAS [6,11,21,23-25,28,32,38,39,42,46,49] during the initiation of AAS use.…”

“…The immediate social networks of respondents such as intimate partners, relatives, as well as friends or teammates also emerged as important sources of AAS [6,11,21,23-25,28,32,38,39,42,46,49] during the initiation of AAS use.…”

Reconceptualising the Gender of Fitness Doping: Performing and Negotiating Masculinity through Drug-Use Practices

“…Consequently, muscle-building-or more specifically, bodybuilding-in the gym has been associated with the use of PES for a long time (cf. [16,17]). Furthermore, men are overrepresented when it comes to the use of PES in connection with "pumping iron" [18][19][20].…”