Doping prevention among young athletes: comparison of a health education-based intervention versus information-based intervention

The extent of sport doping and its potential risks for health is to be considered as a problem of public health. Until now, a very few number of prevention programs have shown to be efficient. The aim of this prospective study was to compare the benefit of a specific educational intervention versus an information-based intervention to reduce adolescent athletes'' intent to use drugs. The participants were 545 adolescent athletes in Lorraine (France) randomly included in two experimental groups, health education-based intervention (EX-E) and information-based intervention (EX-I), and a control group. The interventions were divided in four steps. For the EX-E group: information on epidemiology of doping in sport, discussions about nutritional supplement and other authorised products, a drug refusal role play, information on self-medication. For the EX-I group: information on the IOC prohibited substances list, discussions about risks for health, discussions about ethic and fair play in sport, information on antidoping controls. The program was evaluated by a self-administrated questionnaire before, just after the intervention and three months later. A significant increase of protective factors and reduction of risks factors was found in the EX-E group three months after the intervention. No difference was observed in the EX-I and TEM groups. This work suggests that health education-based interventions are effective in preventing drug use among adolescent athletes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]