title: Prediction profiles for nutritional supplement use among young German elite athletes.
abstract: Nutritional supplements (NS) are defined as concentrated sources of nutrients and other substances that have a nutritional or physiological effect and that are used in high frequency among athletes. The study aimed to create a prediction profile for young elite athletes to identify those athletes who have a higher relative risk for using NS. The second objective was to examine the hypothesis that the consumption of NS paves a gateway for the use of illicit drugs and doping substances. A self-designed anonymous paper-and-pencil questionnaire was used to examine the prevalence of NS consumption, doping, and illicit drug use in elite athletes with a mean age of 17 years (SD = 4 years). Logistic regression analysis was employed to assess whether NS consumption can be predicted by independent variables (e.g., biographical data, training characteristics, drug consumption behavior) to create the prediction profile for NS use. 55% and 5% of the athletes (n = 536) responded positively to having used NS and illicit drugs, respectively. Nutritional supplement consumption was positively correlated with age (OR: 1.92; CI: 1.21 to 3.05), the desire to enhance performance to become an Olympic or World Champion (OR: 3.72; CI: 2.33 to 6.01), and being educated about NS (OR: 2.76; CI: 1.73 to 4.45). It was negatively correlated with training frequency (OR: 0.55; CI: 0.35 to 0.86) and the use of nicotine (OR: 0.29; CI: 0.1 to 0.74) but did not correlate with illicit drug use and alcohol consumption. The present results show that NS are used on a large scale in elite sports. The prediction profile presented in this article may help to identify those athletes who have a high risk for using NS to plan potential education and prevention models more individually.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Sports Medicine, Rehabilitation and Disease Prevention, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dietz
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ulrich
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Niess
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Best
authors.forename: Perikles
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Striegel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D056352:Athletes / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004300:Doping in Sports / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D058573:Performance-Enhancing Substances / Q000008:administration & dosage; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012309:Risk-Taking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D058573:Performance-Enhancing Substances