title: Prevalence and correlates of anabolic-androgenic steroid use in a nationally representative sample of 17-year-old Norwegian adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) use has been identified as a serious public health problem.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study investigates the prevalence and correlates of AAS use among Norwegian adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2012, a nationally representative sample of 2,055 17-year-old adolescents (963 males and 1,088 females) participated in a survey. The response rate was 70.4%. In addition to questions about AAS use, participants completed the Parental Monitoring Scale, the Family Relations/Cohesion Scale, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test C, the Mini-International Personality Item Pool-Five-Factor Model, the Eysenck Narrow Impulsiveness Subscale, the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking, the Short-Form Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale. They also answered questions about demography, gambling, smoking, snus, and narcotic use. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The lifetime prevalence of AAS use was 0.30% (0.52% in males and 0.09% in females), while current prevalence was 0.25%. Moreover, 19.39% of the sample reported having an acquaintance who used or had used AAS. Having an acquaintance who used or had used AAS was significantly related to snus use, depression, aggression, extraversion, and conscientiousness in both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Conclusions/Importance: Our findings suggest a high prevalence of AAS use among Norwegian adolescents and denote the significance of social, personality, and health factors in adolescents' exposure to AAS milieu.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christiesgate 12, 5015 Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Dominic
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sagoe
authors.forename: Cecilie Schou
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Andreassen
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Molde
authors.forename: Torbjørn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Torsheim
authors.forename: Ståle
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pallesen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D045930:Anabolic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004300:Doping in Sports / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D045930:Anabolic Agents
keywords: Norway; adolescents; anabolic–androgenic steroid; correlates; prevalence