Dietary Supplements: A Gateway to Doping?

Dietary supplements are widely used among athletes, but many may be unaware of the potential for unintentional doping, especially considering that supplements can often be contaminated with prohibited substances. The reason behind the widespread use of dietary supplements among athletes is often cited as being for the purposes of enhancing health or performance. However, many athletes turn to unreliable sources of information, and often lack knowledge of dietary supplement regulations. The aim of this narrative review is to explore the current research surrounding the psychological constructs (such as norms, attitudes, and beliefs) related to dietary supplement use among athletes that may lead to inadvertent doping. This review also covers possible programme structures that may be effective at preventing inadvertent doping.

Prevalence of Dietary Supplement Use among Athletes Worldwide: A Scoping Review.

Athletes represent a major part of dietary supplement users. This scoping review aims to explore the prevalence of dietary supplement use among athletes worldwide, most commonly used supplements, sources of information on dietary supplements and their reasons for use of these supplements. PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and PsycInfo were searched for original research articles. Studies were included if they involved athletes, identified the prevalence of dietary supplement use, and were published after 2017. A total of 26 articles were reviewed. Prevalence of dietary supplement use varied among articles, but sex-based differences related to the types of used dietary supplements existed. Generally, the findings were consistent in terms of reasons for use and sources of information. Unfortunately, the lack of homogeneity regarding the definition of dietary supplements, definition of use, reporting timeframes, and data collection methods complicates the attempt to compare the findings among studies.