Assessing the awareness of sports doping among University of Malta students

Abstract

The use of performance enhancing substances not only violates the spirit of fairness and integrity of sport, but may also result in negative health effects. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sets the standards of antidoping legislation and also carries out many initiatives to increase awareness internationally. This project aimed to evaluate the level of awareness about doping in sports among University of Malta students studying in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Dental Surgery, and Institute of Physical Education and Sport. This was done by using a questionnaire adapted from the WADA Play-true quiz, which is a short online quiz developed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to test the knowledge of sportspersons on anti-doping regulation and had been used in similar studies. Overall, the students who replied (N=120) obtained a mean knowledge score of 14.65 or had 58.6% of questions answered correctly. A statistically significant difference in knowledge level was found between students who practise a sport and those who do not (p=0.037). No differences in knowledge were found between males and females, or between different courses of study. In general, the students were found to have negative and intolerant attitudes towards performance-enhancing substance [PES] use. Males were found to have a statistically significant increase in positive attitudes compared to females (p=0.045), while no differences in attitude were found between sportspersons and those who did not practise a sport, or between different courses of study. There was no association found between the participants’ knowledge and their attitude towards doping in sport. These results indicate that, similar to previously published studies, these students can be considered to possess a moderate level of anti-doping knowledge. The study had several limitations, mostly due to the overall poor response rates. However, it reiterates the need for further education in the subject among university students, both as part of university curricula, and as part of extra-curricular educational initiatives.