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Writing 1
(PSY 24
writing assignment)
Assignment and directions are attached below
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Writing 1 (PSY 24 writing assignment)
Instructions
Assignment and directions are attached below – Make sure you open and read all the info posted under paper
directions. Follow the instructions for max credit. Below is a quick preview- make sure you open the attached
paper assignment directions for all the info.
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this is what you write on for this assignment. Do not make any changes to this form. Write your information
where it says type here. The assignment must be submitted on the template in doc or docx format.
3. As stated on Directions document https://www.apa.org/monitor/ is the link for the monitor to find your
article. Make sure once you are on the site when searching you click the down arrow and click monitor
next to the search box. If you don’t it will take you out of the monitor section and you will not find the
correct type of articles. See finding monitor and pub med attached documents for more info.
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Page 3 of 3
e100 I. Palmi et al.
The unethicality of doping in sports
I. Palmi1, P. Berretta1, A. Tini2*, G. Ricci3, S. Marinelli3
1Centro Nazionale Dipendenze e Doping, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma; 2Unit of Forensic Toxicology (UoFT), Department of
Anatomical, Histological, Forensic and Orthopedic Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome; 3School of Law, University of
Camerino, Camerino, Italy
Commentary Clin Ter 2019; 170 (2):e100-101. doi: 10.7417/CT.2019.2117
Copyright © Società Editrice Universo (SEU)
ISSN 1972-6007
Correspondence: *Anastasio Tini, Unit of Forensic Toxicology (UoFT), Department of Anatomical, Histological, Forensic and Orthopedic
Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale Regina Elena 366, 00161,Rome, Italy. Tel-fax- +39 06 49912622.
E-mail: anastasio.tini78@gmail.com
Dear Editor,
Sport, in its simplest form, is one of the most extraordi-
nary human activities. It imposes rules that provide equal op-
portunities for all, such as entertainment and enjoyment, and
offers participants the opportunity to extend their physical
and mental limits, share common values and experiences.
First of all, in the discussion on the question “should
doping be considered unethical in sports?”, the reasons why
certain substances or methods enhancing physical perfor-
mance are banned should be taken into account. The World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) states that there is an intrinsic
value about sports that is the celebration of the human spirit,
body and mind, and is reflected in values including fair play
and honesty, respect for self and other participants, respect
for rules and laws, and health (1). The WADA List of Pro-
hibited Substances and Methods, may include any substance
and methods that satisfy at least two of the following three
Abstract
Performance enhancing drug use in sport arguably constitutes a
crisis, and as such, targeted measures are needed in order to stem it.
Substance abuse in professional sports and competitions has besmir-
ched many world-class athletes’ reputations and standing, in addition
to jeopardizing their health. Furthermore, there are many instances of
amateur athletes and school-aged competitors who have taken to using
such substances as well, significantly exacerbating the overall picture.
The widespread acknowledgement of the potentially life-threatening
consequences of performance-enhancing drug use has prodded sports
organizations and governments into cooperating on many different
levels to preserve the ethical grounding and soundness of sport compe-
titions; unlawful substance abuse is in fact liable to undermine the very
core of fairness in competition. Doping, along with various forms of
cheating, has been recorded throughout the history of sport: prohibition
in itself is all but ineffective without reliable and systematic detection
strategies and enforcement of sanctions. Clin Ter 2019; 170(2):e100-
101. doi: 10.7417/CT.2019.2117
Key words: doping, drugs, physical enhancement, ethical issues
criteria: 1) it has the potential to enhance or enhances sport
performance; 2) it represents an actual or potential health
risk to the athletes; 3) it violates the spirit of sport. The points
1 and 3 are mainly ethical arguments of “professional” na-
ture: the use of substances or methods that enhance athletic
performance violates the principles of equal opportunity
and fairness between athletes. Moreover, doping is cheat-
ing and it causes unfairness harms to the society, especially
in children and young adults who consider athletes as role
models. The point 2 is ethical argument strictly linked to the
athlete’s health. Most performance-enhancing substances
are drugs developed with the aim to treat specific diseases
and the off-label use in healthy subjects can induce short-
term and long-term damages (2). For example, among the
most misused drug there is erythropoietin (Epo) employed
to treat anemia resulting from chronic kidney disease or in
chemotherapy induced anemia. The intake of Epo in healthy
subjects leads to ‘thick blood’ and the danger of thromboses,
with the additional risk of heart attack (3). Likewise, the off-
label intake of anabolic steroids may lead to an increased
risk of arteriosclerosis: the heart muscle mass increases, the
myocardial perfusion deteriorates and the liver is damaged,
leading to liver failure (4). Therefore, the role of physicians
in anti-doping policies and practices is crucial and as matter
of fact, medical ethics should be bound to the principles of
beneficence, respect for autonomy, non-maleficence and jus-
tice (5). For all these reasons developing and administering
ergogenic substances or methods for athletes by physicians
is unethical since the administration of those substances can
cause serious health risks for the athletes and it violates the
principles of medical ethics (6-10). In Italy, both the compli-
ance of the WADA rules (e.g. the Anti-Doping Sports Rules)
and the transposition of the List of Prohibited Substances
and Methods, are under the responsibility of National An-
tidoping Organization (NADO-Italia). The athletes and
support staff are mandatory required to know and respect
the Anti-Doping Sports Rules as an essential condition for
participation in sports activities. In addition, Italy has also
adopted a State anti-doping law (the Law of 14 December
2000 n. 376 – Discipline of Health Protection in Sport and
the Fight against Doping) (11), which disciplines doping as
e101The unethicality of doping in sports
a criminal offense, providing both imprisonment and pecuni-
ary sanctions. This law identifies the health protection as the
critical point, especially focusing in the amateur sport. As
matter of fact, while elite athletes are engaged with the anti-
doping system of WADA (i.e. routine anti-doping testing,
educational training), amateur athletes have been generally
left out of any anti-doping rule. Even the role of expertise
or expert advice is different in the amateur context, where
institutional expertise (i.e. sports medical professionals,
anti-doping organizations) may be less accessible than it
is for elite athletes. Amateur athletes may instead rely on
lay or community sources of expertise (i.e. fellow runners,
online athlete forums) to be informed on what substances or
products may improve health or performance. The implica-
tions for health are evident as well as the series of challenges
that anti-doping organizations should face when applying
their policies to amateur athletes. The Italian anti-doping law
heals these shortcomings, having created the “Section of the
Technical Health Committee for Supervision and Control
on Doping and for Health Protection in Sport Activities”,
that carries out, among the others, the following activities on
amateur sport: 1) it updates each year the list of prohibited
substances and practices, adapting it to the WADA list; 2) it
determines cases, criteria and methodologies for anti-doping
controls; 3) it promotes research projects and information/
training campaigns to protect health in sports and prevent
doping. In this law, the promotion of athlete health became
one of the central reasons to ban the prohibited substance use
among both elite and amateur athletes, and the main reason
to consider doping as a unethical practice. In conclusion,
Italian antidoping approach on amateur athletes seems to
be a good strategy to unify the fight against doping both in
the professional sports with that amateur sports. It can be
considered a good practice, which can be an input for all
the other international countries for a comprehensive fight
against the unethicality of doping in sports.
References
1. WADA Ethics Panel: Guiding Values in Sport and Anti-
Doping at https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/re-
sources/files/wada_ethicspanel_setofnorms_oct2017_en
(last accessed: January 29, 2019)
2. Pellegrini M, Rotolo MC, Busardò FP, et al. Non-allowed
Pharmacologically Active Substances in Physical and Sexual
Performance Enhancing Products. Curr Neuropharmacol.
2017; 15:724-30
3. Corlett AJ, Brown V, Kirkland K. Coping with doping. J
Philos Sport 2013; 40:41–64
4. Solimini R, Rotolo MC, Mastrobattista L, et al. Hepatotoxi-
city associated with illicit use of anabolic androgenic steroids
in doping. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2017; 21:7-16
5. Conti AA. Bioethics and the Italian National Bioethics Com-
mittee: historical highlights. Clin Ter. 2016; 167:147-9
6. Ekmekci PE. Physicians’ Ethical Dilemmas in the Context
of Anti-Doping Practices. Ann Sports Med Res 2016;3: pii:
1089
7. Carlier J, Giorgetti R, Varì MR, et al. Use of cognitive enhan-
cers: methylphenidate and analogs. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol
Sci. 2019; 23:3-15
8. Busardò FP, Kyriakou C, Cipolloni L, et al. From Clinical
Application to Cognitive Enhancement: The Example of
Methylphenidate. Curr Neuropharmacol. 2016;14(1):17-27
9. Frati P, Kyriakou C, Del Rio A, et al. Smart drugs and syn-
thetic androgens for cognitive and physical enhancement:
revolving doors of cosmetic neurology. Curr Neuropharma-
col. 2015; 13:5-11
10. Gentili S, Mortali C, Mastrobattista L, et al. Determination of
different recreational drugs in sweat by headspace solid-phase
microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-
SPME GC/MS): Application to drugged drivers. J Pharm
Biomed Anal. 2016; 129:282-7
11. Law of 14 December 2000 n. 376 – Discipline of Health
Protection in Sport and the Fight against Doping at http://
www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_normativa_652_allegato
(last accessed: January 29, 2019)
RESEARCH REPORT
doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01568.x
© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 Society for the Study of Addictio
n
Addiction,
10
1
, 1640 –
164
4
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Oxford, UK
ADD
Addiction
0965-2140
© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 Society for the Study of Addiction
2006
101
1116401644
Original Article
Doping in fitness sports
Perikles Simon
et al.
Correspondence to:
Heiko Striegel, University Medical Clinic, Department of Sports Medicine, University of Tuebingen, Silcherstraße 5, 72076 Tübingen,
Germany. E-mail: heiko.striegel@uni-tuebingen.de
Submitted 7 December 2005; initial review completed 9 January 2006; final version accepted 22 May 2006
RESEARCH REPORT
Doping in fitness sports: estimated number of
unreported cases and individual probability of doping
Perikles Simon
1
, Heiko Striegel
1
, Fabian Aust
1
, Klaus Dietz
3
& Rolf Ulrich
2
University of Tuebingen, Department of Sports Medicine, General Internal Medicine V, Tuebingen, Germany
,
1
University of Tuebingen, Department of Cognitive and
Biological Psychology, Tuebingen, Germany
2
and University of Tuebingen, Department of Medical Biometry, Tuebingen, Germany
3
ABSTRACT
Aims
Recent studies have suggested that the use of doping substances and particularly of anabolic androgenic
steroids (AAS) is often practised by fitness centre visitors. These studies employed direct interview techniques and
questionnaires to assess the estimated number of unreported cases of doping. Because people hesitate to provide com-
promising information about themselves, these techniques are subject to response errors. In this study we applied an
alternative interview technique to assess more accurately unreported cases of doping in fitness centres.
Design and
participants
The present investigation employed the randomized response technique (RRT) to reduce response errors.
A cohort of 500 people from 49 fitness centres participated in this study.
Finding
The RRT revealed a high pre-
valence of doping (12.5%). In addition, and most importantly, the present RRT study revealed an alarmingly high pre-
valence of illicit drug use, specifically of cocaine use, that has been severely underestimated by previous studies.
Conclusions
The RRT confirmed previously estimated rates of AAS use assessed by direct interview techniques and
voluntary questionnaires, but uncovered a much higher usage rate of illicit drugs among fitness centre visitors. This
outcome enabled us to construct a ‘probability’ rating for the use of doping substances in fitness centre visitors. Given
its high prevalence and the predominant use of AAS, doping among fitness centre visitors is an issue of extreme rele-
vance for the health care system. Our study may help to characterize further doping substance users and to develo
p
and apply prevention and intervention programmes specifically to individuals at high risk.
Keywords
Doping, fitness sports, randomized response technique, prevention.
INTRODUCTION
Doping substances are used by increasing groups of the
younger population for life-style purposes [1–4]. The
most commonly abused substance class is anabolic
androgenic steroids (AAS), despite its relatively high
short- and long-term risks [5–8]. Previous studies in
western Europe and the United States suggested a preva-
lence of AAS use among male fitness centre visitors of
about 5–10% [4,9]. This is an alarming figure given that,
according to official figures of the German fitness centre
organization, in 2004 nearly 5 million people visited
fitness centres (http://www.dssv.de). It has been
extrapolated that male fitness centre visitors contribute
to as many as 1 million AAS users in the United States
[1,10,11].
Prevention and intervention programmes against
doping may therefore benefit from specifically targeting
fitness centre visitors. It is important to isolate the sub-
group of doping substance users, as fitness centre visitors
are a heterogeneous population with regard to man
y
anthropometric, social and training parameters [12].
Accordingly, a more precise characterization of the dop-
ing substance users with regard to the above-mentioned
basic parameters will therefore be helpful in planning
and initializing anti-doping programmes.
The results of our previous study suggest that doping
substance users in fitness centres constitute a unique
group, distinct from the group of illicit drug users
concerning anthropometrics, social indicators and
training data [12]. As in the case of other survey
studies that have employed direct interview techniques,
http://www.dssv.de
Doping in fitness sports
1641
© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 Society for the Study of Addiction
Addiction,
101
, 1640 – 1644
uncertainties exist about whether the prevalence for
doping is reliable. Socially sensitive issues such as, for
instance, illicit drug use, may be under-reported, due
especially to the direct approach of these survey tech-
niques, as people hesitate to provide compromising
information about themselves. Accordingly, which
parameters are reliably associated with doping are still
a
matter of debate. In particular, the assumption that sen-
sitive issues such as illicit drug use are associated with
doping may be biased by response errors. In order to
clarify this point, the present study employs the random-
ized response technique (RRT), which requests informa-
tion in an indirect manner and therefore minimizes
response errors [13,14].
We hypothesized that RRT will confirm the results of
our survey with respect to socially non-sensitive issues. In
contrast, however, we expected that the RRT would reveal
substantially higher prevalences for socially sensitive
issues. The outcome of RRT will identify which associa-
tions between doping and other parameters could be
regarded as reliable. This information will be used to
improve the characterization of doping substance users
in fitness sports.
METHOD
S
Sample
A total of 500 fitness centre members were interviewed.
These members were recruited from a representative sub-
set of 49 fitness centres from the 113 centres that were
included in the previous survey [12]. One per cent of the
members in each centre were recruited for an interview.
Selection of subjects was conducted at different time-
points during the opening hours of the different fitness
studios. Training directors of the particular facilities were
asked to assist with the random choice recruitment of fit-
ness centre members, in order to ensure only involve-
ment of members of the particular facilities and to
maximize the participation response rate. Only one mem-
ber refused to participate in this study.
Randomized response technique
The standard version of the unrelated question RRT
design was used to acquire information about five sensi-
tive issues by presenting sensitive questions in an indirect
manner [14]. Each of the five sensitive issues was tested in
a separate trial. Thus, the complete interview was com-
posed of five trials. In brief, in each trial, one sensitive
question and one non-sensitive question unrelated to the
sensitive issue was formulated (Table 1). The respondents
received a deck of 20 cards which contained 15 replica-
tions of the sensitive question and five replications of the
innocuous question. In each trial, the respondents were
shown the deck so they were fully aware of the two types
of questions. They were then asked to turn the deck
around, to shuffle it, to draw a card from the shuffled deck
and to answer the question on the card drawn with ‘yes’
or ‘no’. This procedure was repeated for the remaining
four sensitive questions. Thus, in each of the four remain-
ing trials, a new deck with 15 replications of another
sensitive question and with five replications of another
non-sensitive question was used (see Table 1 for the pair
of questions that was employed in each of the five trials).
Because the interviewer did not know whether the
respondents had drawn the sensitive or innocuous cards,
the respondents could respond honestly without feeling
embarrassed. Although the actual question answered by
the respondents remained anonymous to the interviewer,
the proportion (i.e. dark figure) of ‘yes’ responses with
respect to the sensitive question can nevertheless be
inferred from the answers of all respondents using the fol-
lowing formula:
π
S
=
[
a
−
(1
−
p
)
·
π
I
]/
p
,
where
a
denotes the proportion of respondents in the
sample which replied with ‘yes’ to the drawn card (i.e.
irrespective of type of question),
p
is the probability of
drawing the sensitive card from the deck (i.e. in our case
p
=
3/4) and
π
I
corresponds to the probability of answer-
ing the innocuous question with ‘yes’. In our study,
π
I
equals 120 of 365.25 for the first three innocuous
Table 1
Results of the personal survey using the randomized response technique.
Sensitive question Unrelated question ‘Yes’ ‘No’ a
π
S
95% CI
Have you ever used doping
substances?
Is your mother’s birthday in the first 10 days of
her birth month?
88 412 0.176 12.5% 8.2–17.4
Have you ever taken illegal drugs? Is your mother’s birthday in the first 10 days of
her birth month?
196 304 0.392 41.3% 35.6–47.2
Have you ever used cocaine? Is your mother’s birthday in the first 10 days of
her birth month?
96 404 0.192 14.6% 10.1–19.5
Do you smoke? Does your house number end in an even number? 166 334 0.332 27.6% 22.1–33.4
Do you drink alcohol? Does your telephone number end in an even
number?
324 176 0.648 69.7% 63.9–75.3
© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 Society for the Study of Addiction
Addiction,
101
, 1640 – 1644
1642
Perikles Simon
et al.
questions and to one of two for the remaining two
(cf. Table 1). The variance of the sampling distribution
for
π
S
can be estimated from:
Var(
π
S
)
=
[
a
·(1
−
a
)]/(
n
·
p
2
),
with
n
denoting the number of respondents in the sample.
This variance was used to compute a 95% confidence
interval for
π
S
.
Following the RRT interview, we assessed the follow-
ing parameters, as described previously [12]. In brief, the
following parameters were included: (1) age (years), (2)
height (cm), (3) weight (kg), (4) sex (m/f), (5) schooling
(A-level, which is the highest school education level in
Germany, or no A-level), (6) family status (married versus
unmarried and divorced), (7) nationality (German or for-
eign), (8) training years (years), (9) training frequency
(times per week) and (10) sports practised (fitness train-
ing, weight-lifting or body-building).
RESULTS
The majority of participants were male (69.4%), the aver-
age age was 32.0
(SD
=
11.0) and the average body mass
index was 24.2 kg/m
2
(SD
=
3.5). The basic characteris-
tics are shown in Table 2.
Table 1 shows RRT results. We estimated the number
of unknown cases for the prevalence of doping to be
12.5% (95% CI: 8.2–17.4%). This figure agrees with the
results of our recent questionnaire survey. Table 3 shows
a comparison of the outcomes of both studies. Accord-
ingly, almost identical results were obtained for the
socially non-sensitive issues of nicotine and alcohol con-
sumption. However, and most importantly, RRT revealed
an approximately threefold higher number of unre-
ported cases for the prevalence of socially and legally
sensitive issues such as illicit drug use, particularly
cocaine use.
The present RRT study confirmed the results of the
previous study with regard to the socially non-sensitive
issues. Therefore, we used only these non-sensitive
parameters to predict doping substance abuse by apply-
ing nominal logistic regression analysis to the data from
our previous study. A prediction profile for doping sub-
stance abuse was calculated (Fig. 1) on the basis of seven
non-sensitive predictor variables. An individual is recog-
nized by this model as a doping substance user if his or
her probability for taking doping substances is above
50%. The sensitivity of the prediction is 40.5, the speci-
ficity 96.7 and the area under the receiver operating
curve is 0.87.
DISCUSSION
Previous studies used direct interview techniques and
questionnaires to reveal the estimated number of unre-
ported cases of doping and to investigate the association
of doping with other parameters [1,2,4,15]. Although
previous studies used comparable methodologies, some
studies suggested a strong significant association
between doping and illicit drug abuse, while others
suggested the opposite or at least no correlation
[10,12,16,17]. The present RRT confirmed the estimated
number of unreported cases of the socially non-sensitive
questions in our previous study but revealed figures
about three times higher for illicit drug abuse, particu-
larly cocaine abuse. This agrees with a recent Italian
study, which found very high levels of cocaine metabo-
lites in urban waste water [18]. The amount of metabo-
lites found allowed them to conclude that the prevalence
of cocaine use within the population must be higher
than the numbers reported officially. This finding
Table 2
Basic characteristics of 500 fitness centre visitors.
Variable No. (%)
Sex
Female 153 (30.6)
Male 347 (69.4)
School education
A-levels 231 (46.2)
Family status
Married 143 (28.6)
Sport
Fitness training 292 (58.4)
Weight-lifting 127 (25.4)
Body-building 81 (16.2)
Nationality
German 419 (83.8)
Training years
<
6 317 (63.4)
≥
6 183 (36.6)
Training frequency
Sporadic 1 (0.2)
1–2 times a week 171 (34.2)
3–4 times a week 261 (52.2)
5–6 times a week 54 (10.8)
Daily 13 (2.6)
Table 3
Comparison of survey results using a questionnaire
and the randomized response technique (RRT).
Variable Questionnaire RRT
Doping ‘yes’ 13.5% 12.5%
Illegal drugs ‘yes’ 15.9% 41.3%
Cocaine ‘yes’ 4.7% 14.6%
Nicotine ‘yes’ 30.0% 27.5%
Alcohol ‘yes’ 77.8% 69.6%
Doping in fitness sports
1643
© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 Society for the Study of Addiction
Addiction,
101
, 1640 – 1644
supports the notion that estimates of prevalence derived
from direct interview techniques or voluntary question-
naires are too low for sensitive issues such as illicit drug
use, particularly the use of cocaine. Accordingly,
contradictory results between different studies regarding
sensitive issues may be based simply on methodological
insufficiencies.
The estimated number of unknown cases for such
socially non-sensitive parameters as smoking and alcohol
consumption agree with results published previously
(Table 3). Surprisingly, the estimated number of unre-
ported cases for doping among fitness centre visitors
seems to be estimated correctly by direct interview tech-
niques. This finding suggests that doping may not be per-
ceived as a sensitive issue by fitness centre visitors. One of
the potential reasons for this phenomenon may well be a
prominent role of the German health care system in pro-
viding fitness centre visitors with the doping drugs AAS
and Clenbuterol, as well as monitoring their side effects
[12].
The present study revealed a 12.5% prevalence of dop-
ing among fitness centre visitors, which agrees ade-
quately with the figure of 13.5% in our previous study,
based on a larger sample from the identical population
[12]. Both figures are the highest reported so far, as they
include a representative proportion of females who are
known to use doping substances to a lesser extent
[4,9,15].
RRT is particularly suited to confirm or reject the prev-
alence of parameters investigated in previous studies
[13,19]. In the case that RRT does not confirm a param-
eter of a direct interview study, it is reasonable to assume
that any relationships suggested on the basis of this
parameter are not reliable. However, parameters con-
firmed by RRT may be used to further improve investiga-
tion of the associations between these parameters by
resorting to the data obtained in conventional interview
or question studies. We instanced this procedure by con-
structing a model to predict the individual probability for
the use of doping substances. In our previous study the
Figure 1
Prediction profiles for taking
doping substances. The vertical dotted
lines for each of the eight dichotomized
variables show its current setting to 0 or
1, with ‘0’
=
‘no’ for the variables
‘domestic citizen’, ‘A-level’, ‘alcohol’,
‘body building’ or below 23.5 kg/m
2
for
the BMI, below 7 years for ‘training years’
or below four times per week for ‘train-
ing frequency’. The horizontal dotted line
indicates the current probability for tak-
ing doping substances on the
y
-axis,
which is also given as a percentage on
the left-hand side for each profile. Profile
1 is the profile where all variables are set
(represented by the vertical dotted
lines) in such a manner as to obtain the
profile with the lowest probability for
doping. When a variables setting is
changed its legend name appears in
bold. The individual lines within the plots
for each variable show how the proba-
bility for taking doping substances would
change when the current value of an
individual variable was changed
1
0
Profile 1
0.2 %
domestic
citizen
A-level alcohol BMI training-
years
training-
frequency
bodybuilding
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 1 1 1 1 1
1
0
Profile 2
0.6 %
domestic
citizen
A-level alcohol BMI training-
years
training-
frequency
bodybuilding
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 1 1 1 1 1
1
0
Profile 3
1.2 %
domestic
citizen
A-level alcohol BMI training-
years
training-
frequency
bodybuilding
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 1 1 1 1 1
1
0
Profile 4
2.9 %
domestic
citizen
A-level alcohol BMI training-
years
training-
frequency
bodybuilding
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 1 1 1 1 1
1
0
Profile 5
11.0 %
domestic
citizen
A-level alcohol BMI training-
years
training-
frequency
bodybuilding
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 1 1 1 1 1
1
0
Profile 6
23.2 %
domestic
citizen
A-level alcohol BMI training-
years
training-
frequency
bodybuilding
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 1 1 1 1 1
1
0
Profile 7
63.8 %
domestic
citizen
A-level alcohol BMI training-
years
training-
frequency
bodybuilding
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 1 1 1 1 1
1
0
Profile 8
92.5 %
domestic
citizen
A-level alcohol BMI training-
years
training-
frequency
bodybuilding
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 01 1 1 1 1 1
© 2006 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2006 Society for the Study of Addiction
Addiction,
101
, 1640 – 1644
1644
Perikles Simon
et al.
parameter ‘cocaine use’ was suggested to be statistically
highly significantly associated with doping. Even though
the model obtained had to be constructed without using
the sensitive parameter ‘cocaine use’, the model did not
greatly lose sensitivity or specificity.
Taken together, our results demonstrate and confirm
an alarmingly high prevalence of doping in fitness sports.
We were also able to demonstrate for the first time a very
high prevalence of illicit drug use. Furthermore, we show
that it is principally possible to estimate the individual
probability of doping on the basis of only seven dichoto-
mized non-sensitive questions within this clientele. Anti-
doping programmes directed at normal citizens not prac-
tising professional sports are currently politically
en
vogue
. For the most part, this is due to an expected credit
for public health care [9,11,20]. The outcome of our
study stresses the acuteness of the problem of doping in
fitness sports and may provide a first link for improving
doping prevention and intervention programmes.
Declaration
The authors P. Simon and H. Striegel contributed equally
to this study.
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