Prevalence of Doping Use in Elite Sports: A Review of Numbers and Methods
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REVIEW ARTICLE
Prevalence of Doping Use in Elite Sports: A Review of Numbers and Methods Olivier de Hon • Harm Kuipers Maarten van Bottenburg
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Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
Abstract The prevalence of doping in elite sports is relevant for all those involved in sports, particularly for evaluating anti-doping policy measures. Remarkably, few scientific articles have addressed this subject so far, and the last review dates back to 1997. As a consequence, the true prevalence of doping in elite sports is unknown. Even though it is virtually impossible to uncover the exact prevalence of a prohibited activity such as doping, various methods are available to uncover parts of this particular problem, which enables the circumvention (to a certain degree) of the issues of truthfulness, definition problems and the limits of pharmacological evidence. This review outlines the various methods that exist and presents the scarce data available in this area. It is concluded that a combination of questionnaires using the Randomised Response Technique and models of biological parameters is able to provide the statistical possibilities to reveal accurate estimates of this often undisclosed practice. Data gathered in this way yield an estimation of 14–39 % of current adult elite athletes who intentionally used doping.
O. de Hon (&) Anti-Doping Authority The Netherlands, P.O. Box 5000, 2900 EA Capelle aan den IJssel, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] H. Kuipers Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands M. van Bottenburg Utrecht University School of Governance, Utrecht, The Netherlands
These period prevalences have been found in specific subgroups of elite athletes, and the available data suggest that the prevalence of doping is considerably different between sub-groups with varying types of sport, levels and nationalities. The above-mentioned figure of 14–39 % is likely to be a more accurate reflection of the prevalence of intentional doping in elite sports than that provided by doping control test results (estimate of doping: 1–2 % annually) or questionnaire-based research (estimations between 1 and 70 % depending on sport, level and exact definitions of intent and doping). In the future, analytical science may play a more important role in this topic if it may become feasible to detect very low concentrations of prohibited substances in sewage systems downstream of major sporting events. However, it is clear that current doping control test results show a distinct underestimation of true doping prevalence. It does not seem feasible to distil better estimates of the prevalence of doping based on performance indicators or ego documents because of the various existing effects that influence athletic performance. Such information can only be used as extra information to augment the accuracy of prevalence rates that have been found by using other techniques. True doping prevalence studies have been scarce in elite sports so far. With the
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