24 research outputs found
The Prevalence and Characteristics of Performance-Enhancing Drug Use Among Bodybuilding Athletes in the South of Iran, Bushehr
Background: Several reports have implied progressive increase of performance-enhancing drug (PED) use among Iranian athletes.
More importantly, most of the previous research in the Iranian population had mainly focused on the anabolic steroid abuse, and
ignored other agents.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of PED use among bodybuilding athletes in
Bushehr, south of Iran.
Methods: Four hundred and fifty three male bodybuilding athletes were recruited from Bushehr gyms between February and May
of 2015. Men were eligible to participate in the survey if they had regularly participated in the strength-training exercise (minimum
of 1 year and 4 hour/week). Data were collected via a face-to-face interview. The survey consisted of three separate parts including
demographic data, exercise pattern and PED use.
Results: According to this study, 234 (51.7%) of bodybuilding athletes had used PEDs. The PED users reported an average of 3.80 �
4.52 agents’ use in their programs and they had used PEDs for the average of 3.24 � 3.99 years. The most prevalent agents which
had been abused by the athletes were anabolic steroids (used by 185 athletes (79.4% of athletes). Furthermore, 110 (47%) of athletes
reported stimulant agents’ use during their routines. The most prevalent motivation for using PEDs was increasing muscle mass
that was reported by 164 (70.1%) of PED users. In addition, sexual and dermatologic effects were the most prevalent adverse effects
reported by the PED user athletes (114 (49.4%) and 103 (44.2%), respectively).
Conclusions: This study showed the high rate of PED use among recreational and professional Iranian bodybuilding athletes that
can expose them to the serious side effects of these agents