Daily Exercise and Anabolic Steroids Use in Adolescents: A Cross-National European Study

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this paper is to investigate the association between anabolic steroid (AS) use and intensive physical exercise among adolescents. Design/setting: The 1999 cross-sectional European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Data collection by standardized methodology using anonymous self-administered questionnaires completed in the classroom. Participants: National probability samples of a total of 18,430 16-year-old high school students from six European countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, the Slovak Republic, and the U.K.) Measurements: Besides AS use and physical exercise, questionnaire items selected for this study included tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use, indicators of other deviant behavior (self-harming thoughts and behavior, truancy, aggressive behavior), friends' use of AS, and perceived availability. Backward elimination with likelihood ratio tests was used to select the variables to be retained in a mutlifactorial model. Interactions of other independent variables with country were checked. Findings: Logistic regression analysis of lifetime AS users compared to nonusers showed that the odds of lifetime AS use are 1.4 times higher for students who exercise almost daily and 1.8 times higher for boys compared to girls. Significant associations of AS use were also found with current frequent alcohol use, lifetime use of tranquilizers/sedatives and cannabis, and with the perceptions of friends' use of AS and of easy availability of the substance. Conclusion: Findings indicate that daily exercising appears to increase the risk of anabolic steroid use in adolescents. However, a more general pattern of closely interlinked deviant types of behavior, such as other drug use and aggressive behavior, is prominent. Preventive interventions are needed targeted towards adolescents involved in intensive exercise and sport. These should take into account both the idiosyncrasy and setting of the sporting culture and the special characteristics of this group.

Keywords:

• Anabolic steroids
• physical activity
• adolescents
• drug use
• risk factors
• cross-national study

Notes

** p <.01

***p <.001.

* p < .05

** p < .01

*** p < .001.

^†: Includes: cannabis, amphetamines, LSD, crack; cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, tranquilizers/sedatives, inhalants, magic mushrooms, and anabolics.

1. The reader is reminded that the use and misuse of AS is but one example of the increased use of a range of ‘enhancer substances’ which in a very broad sense are used both to give someone an ‘edge’ over ‘the other’ as well as to permit a ‘have not’ to have some type of an opportunity to try to equalize. There are a range of caffeine-based drinks, etc. used for their enhancer effects … including for ‘cognitive enhancement’ as well as sacramental substances for ‘spiritual enhancement’. Editor's Note

2. An additional limitation of this study, as with many studies in the area of substance use intervention, is the inadequate description of the sample which does not present a sense of a functioning person, in this case an adolescent student, with strengths (skills, abilities, knowledge, energy levels, etc.) and limitations as s/he adapts and functions, daily, in various roles, contexts, environments, networks, etc. adequately as well as inadequately, appropriately as well as inappropriately, etc. Creating, maintaining and change pro-social life styles, as well as anti-social ones ‘demands’ resources which are available and accessible. Editor's Note.