Prevalence, Knowledge, Attitudes of Doping among Omani Athletes: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

The phenomenon of doping in Oman has received litter research attention. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence, knowledge, attitude, and willingness on the use of doping among Omani athletes. Adolescent male and female athletes (N=502) completed a multi-section questionnaire assessing the aforementioned variables. The analysis revealed that (34.9%) of the participants believed doping is common in Oman, (22.9%) of them reported personally knew Omani athletes practicing doping. On the other hand, and about (67.7%) did not know any type of doping substances, while (33.3%) acknowledged their knowledge of doping is low. Results showed that the main reasons for the use of doping were to improve performance (37.1%) then to play and train longer (25.4%). The present results reveals that participants has a negative attitude and willingness toward doping. The future anti-doping efforts should focus on raisin athletes' knowledge, awareness, regulation, practice of doping. Researchers aim to expand future investigation into detection and prevention of doping and imbedding moral and ethical values against doping across Omani athletics.