Trends in dietary supplement use among athletes selected for doping controls

Fredrik Lauritzen; Astrid Gjelstad

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1143187

Trends in dietary supplement use among athletes selected for doping controls

Front Nutr. 2023 Mar 15:10:1143187. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1143187. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Fredrik Lauritzen¹, Astrid Gjelstad^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Science and Medicine, Anti-Doping Norway, Oslo, Norway.
² Department of Pharmacy, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Background: Dietary supplements (DS) may be beneficial for athletes in certain situations, whereas incorrect or excessive use may impair performance, pose a risk to the athlete's health and cause positive doping tests by containing prohibited substances. To provide athletes with relevant and tailored information on safe supplement use, a better knowledge about DS trends over time and between sport disciplines are needed.

Methods: This study examines the use of DS among athletes who have participated in doping controls by extracting information derived from 10,418 doping control forms (DCF) collected by Anti-Doping Norway from 2015 to 2019.

Results: Overall, 51% of the DCFs contained information about at least one DS. National level athletes (NLA) more often reported using DS than recreational athletes (RA) (53 vs. 47%, p < 0.001). Athletes in strength and power (71%), VO2_max endurance (56%) and muscular endurance sports (55%) had the highest proportion of DCFs with information about DS. Medical supplements were the most used supplement category for both genders and across all sports. Dietary supplements with a high risk of containing doping substances were most common among male, RA in strength and power sports. There were small and non-significant year-to-year variations in the prevalence of athletes using DS, while the number of products used concomitantly peaked in 2017 before declining in 2019 (2.30 vs. 2.08, p < 0.01). The use of medical supplements and ergogenic substances increased slightly for both NLA and RA from 2015 to 2019, while the use of all other supplement categories declined.

Conclusion: Half of the 10,418 DCFs contained information about DS, with variations within the athlete population. DS with high risk of containing prohibited substances were mostly seen in sport disciplines requiring a high degree of specialization in strength/power, including powerlifting and weightlifting, as well as in some team sports, such as cheerleading and american football.

Keywords: PWO; athlete; dietary supplement; doping; doping control; sport; sport supplement.