[Are newspapers a reliable source of information about doping in sports?].
To study the coverage by French newspapers of doping in sports, we performed a systematic review of articles appearing between January and March 2003 on the following French websites: L'Equipe, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération, La Dépêche du Midi and Agence France-Presse (AFP). We recorded a total of 58 articles about doping. Among them, 48 (83%) were collected from the AFP news. L'Equipe, a French sports newspaper, published seven articles (12%). Most of the recorded data reported results of worldwide antidoping control (71%). No information about new drugs was found. The analysis of the selected articles pointed out the following: (i) the seriousness of observations related to doping since, during this 3-month period, we noted two deaths of athletes; (ii) the risks associated with the use of dietary supplements, particularly products including amphetamine derivatives; (iii) the interest in judicial investigation as an information source about doping in sports (investigation of suspicious deaths of Italian football players); and (iv) identification of the sports involved in doping (cycling, but also athletics, football, rugby). Systematic analysis of newspaper reports can be considered as a relevant method for monitoring the pharmacovigilance and pharmacoepidemiology of doping in sports.
Durrieu
Geneviève
G
Service de Pharmacologie Clinique, Faculté de Médecine de Toulouse, Toulouse, France. durrieu@cict.fr
Gorsse
Elisabeth
E
Montastruc
Jean-Louis
JL
D004300:Doping in Sports / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D017891:Pharmacoepidemiology