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. 2016 Jul 16;7(3):e35018.
doi: 10.5812/asjsm.35018. eCollection 2016 Sep.

The Prevalence and Characteristics of Performance-Enhancing Drug Use Among Bodybuilding Athletes in the South of Iran, Bushehr

Mohammad Javad Haerinejad  1 , Afshin Ostovar  1 , Mohamad Reza Farzaneh  2 , Mojtaba Keshavarz  3
Affiliations

The Prevalence and Characteristics of Performance-Enhancing Drug Use Among Bodybuilding Athletes in the South of Iran, Bushehr

Mohammad Javad Haerinejad et al. Asian J Sports Med. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Anabolic Agents; Performance Enhancing Drugs; Prevalence; Stimulants.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. The Average Body Mass Index (BMI) of Each Group of Performance Enhancing Drug Use Athletes
Data were shown as mean + SD. AAS: androgenic anabolic steroids, St: stimulants, GH: growth hormone, In: insulin.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. The Prevalence of Different Classes of Performance Enhancing Drugs Use Among Bodybuilding Athletes
Data were shown as percent of participant that used each class of performance enhancing drugs. AASs: androgenic anabolic steroids; St: stimulant agents; GH: growth hormone; In: insulin.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. The Comparison of Training History (year) and Exercise Pattern (hour/week) of Performance-Enhancing Drugsusers and Non-Users
Data were shown as mean + SD. SP-his: sport (training) history, Excer: exercise pattern. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare groups. ** shows the significance level of less than 0.001.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. The Prevalence of Methods That Bodybuilding Athletes Had Used to Become Familiar with the Performance Enhancing Agents
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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