Use of dietary supplements in Olympic athletes is decreasing: a follow-up study between 2002 and 2009

Abstract

Background

The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of use of dietary supplements (DS) among large sample of elite Finnish athletes and to describe possible changes in dietary supplement use between the years 2002 and 2009.

Methods

A prospective follow-up study was conducted on Olympic athletes. The first survey was conducted on Olympic athletes in 2002 (N = 446) and the follow-up study was conducted between May 2008 and June 2009 (N = 372).

Results

In 2002, a total of 81% of the athletes used dietary supplements (a mean of 3.37 ± 3.06 DS per user) and in 2009, a total of 73% of the athletes (a mean of 2.60 ± 2.69 per DS user) used them. After adjusting for age-, sex- and sport type, the OR (95% confidence interval, CI) for use of any dietary supplement was significantly less in 2009 as compared with 2002 results (OR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.43-0.90). Decrease in DS use was observed in all supplement subgroups (vitamins, minerals, nutritional supplements). Athletes in speed and power events and endurance events reported use of any dietary supplement significantly more often than team sport athletes both in 2002 and 2009. In year 2009, the frequency of all dietary supplement use increased when athlete's age increased and the increase was significant in older age groups: of the athletes under 21 years 63%, 21-24 years 83% and over 24 years 90% consumed nutritional supplements.

Conclusions

Based in our study, there seems to be a lowering trend of dietary supplement use among elite Finnish athletes although differences between sport subgroups and age groups are considerable.

Keywords:

• Dietary Supplement
• Nutritional Supplement
• Female Athlete
• Elite Athlete
• Endurance Athlete

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1550-2783-8-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1550-2783-8-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Acknowledgements and Funding

The data collection for this study was supported by the Finnish Olympic Committee. We would like to thank Paul Lemetti for editing the English edition of our manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors' contributions

All authors contributed the study design and AA, AH and TV were responsible for the data collection. AH and AA were responsible for the statistical analysis. All authors reviewed and contributed to the final manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.