Success, Failure, and Unfinished Business of Education, Prevention, Policy, and Intervention Programs on Substance Misuse in Brazilian Sport

Abstract

The current Brazilian situation is such that it is difficult to obtain a worldwide evaluation of failure in education, intervention, or prevention programs. How fragile Brazil's anti-doping system is, its appropriateness as well as its relevance, with needed policy infrastructures for achieving the selected goals, and how wide the gap is between education and prevention program effectiveness between high-performance athletes and recreational practitioners who just want to look good. An additional concern, and ever present flaw regarding Brazil's “common sportsman” in day-to-day society is their not receiving known and necessary “sports education,” enabling the development of an “at-risk” population for self-harm. Reflections on public health policy are noted.

Keywords:

• public policy, appearance and performance-enhancing substances, anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs), sports doping

GLOSSARY

• ABCD (the Autoridade Brasileira de Controle de Dopagem): The Brazilian Doping Control Authority. ABCD's mission is to consolidate the anti-doping awareness and defend, at the domestic level, the fundamental right of athletes taking part in sport competitions that are free of any form of doping.

• ANVISA: The National Agency for Sanitary Surveillance. The National Health Surveillance Agency (in Portuguese, Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitria) is a regulatory body of the Brazilian government. In the federal public administrative structure, the agency is connected to the Ministry of Health, with whom a periodic management contract is signed. ANVISA's primary goal is to protect and promote public health, by exercising health surveillance over products and services, including processes, ingredients and technologies that pose any health risks. The agency. Retrieved February, 08, 2015, from http://portal.anvisa. gov.br/wps/portal/anvisa-ingles/anvisaingles).

• Bolsa-Atleta: A financial support grant program from the Ministry of Sport of Brazil which is aimed at high-performance athletes who obtain the best results in national and international competitions in their particular sport (ABCD, 2012).

Notes

¹ The Spanish version is the closest version to Portuguese. However, Spanish is not the native language of Brazilians and, as with all foreign languages it has unique nuances and particularities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Azenildo M. Santos

Azenildo M. Santos, Brazil, B.A., Ph.D., received his bachelor's degree in physical education in Faculdade de Educação Física de Santo André, São Paulo, and is an exercise physiology specialist by Universidade Veiga de Almeida (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). He authored the very first book on anabolic steroids in sports and exercise in Brazil, “O Mundo Anabólico” –in Portuguese. In addition, Santos has authored several chapters on health and physical education. He completed his Ph.D. in Public Health, with an ethnography approach, at the Public Health Institute, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil, where he was awarded a scholarship as a research fellow at the National Council of Scientific and Technologic Development, Ministry of Science and Technology, Brazil. Santos was also awarded a scholarship as a research fellow from Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, Ministry of Education, Brazil, to conduct research in the Sociology Department, at Goldsmiths University of London, United Kingdom. He is a member of the European College of Sport Science. Currently research partner of the Sociology Department, at Goldsmiths University of London, United Kingdom, and member of the Laboratory of Research in Human Performance, University of Pernambuco (UPE), and the Research Group on Human Performance, University of Pernambuco (UPE), Campus Petrolina, PE, Brazil. His primary research interests include performance-enhancing substances, doping in sports and exercise, body image in sports and exercise, sport sociology, sport psychology, sports nutrition, AAS in public health, health promotion, and badminton.