High School Athletes’ Use and Knowledge of (Safe) Nutritional Supplement Use: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The use of nutritional supplements can lead to doping risk and no data exist on high school athletes’ use of certified third-party tested supplements. A cross-sectional cohort design was developed using an anonymous survey. Descriptive data for supplement use, use of third-party tested supplements, and knowledge in high school athletes were reported. A total of 225 high school athletes, ranging from 14-19 years of age, from a private high school in the western US, were included in the analysis of the results. A total of 94% (n=211) of athletes reported nutritional supplement use within the past year with an average of six (interquartile range: 3-9) individual supplements, ranging from 0-20 supplements per person. Most frequently reported were sports drinks (72%), vitamins (65%), sports bars (60%), protein powder (58%), caffeine (37%, as part of normal beverages, or 13% as a supplement), followed by creatine (23%). A total of 24% claimed to know for sure that all their supplements were third-party tested. In addition, the recognition of third-party testing organization icons was low (46% in supplement users vs. 14% in nonusers). Athletes also scored low in reporting how to find (22%) and how to order (25%) third-party tested supplements. In conclusion, almost all athletes in this study reported the use of multiple nutritional supplements annually. Only one-fourth of the athletes reported consistently using third-party tested supplements. Knowledge of where and how tested supplements could be purchased was limited in this high school athlete population.

Keywords:

• attitude
• doping risk
• sports food
• theory of planned behavior

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest, but FW received grants from external partners that were not related to this project. FW received grants from: Arizona Parks & Trails, Pac-12 Health and Wellbeing Initiative, the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietetic Organization, Friesland Campina N.V., Standard Process Inc., Kraft Heinz Company, Unilever Corporation, FEMA, and the Arizona Board of Regents.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support was provided by the Institute of Social Science Research (ISSR) at ASU. This research has received no specific grant from any external funding agency or the commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Floris C. Wardenaar,

Floris Wardenaar, PhD is an assistant Professor and director of the Athleat Field Lab at the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University in the USA.

Hannah Lybbert

Hannah Lybbert and Lindsay Morton are MS students in Nutritional Science at Arizona State University in the USA, Kinta Schott is a PhD student at the ENS program of the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University in the USA.

Kinta D. Schott

Kinta Schott is a PhD student at the ENS program of the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University in the USA.

Colin Shumate,

Colin Shumate, MS, is head strength and conditioning coach at Crean Lutheran High School in the USA.

Simin Levinson,

Simin Levinson, MS, is a Clinical Professor at the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University in the USA.

Christopher Wharton

Christopher Wharton is an Associate Professor at the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University in the USA.

Pamela Kulinna

Pamela Kulinna is a Professor at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University in the USA.

Hans van der Mars

Hans van der Mars is a Professor emeritus at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University in the USA.