Nataša Zenić1, Barbara Gilic1, Jelena Rodek1
1University of Split, Faculty of Kinesiology, Split, Croatia
Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Doping Tendency in Recreational Athletes; Cross-Sectional Analysis
Sport Mont 2025, 23(1), 25-30 | DOI: 10.26773/smj.250204
Abstract
Doping is not uncommon in recreational sports, but studies rarely have examined factors associated with doping tendency (DT) in recreational sport settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sociodemographic factors associated with DT in recreational athletes. The participants were athletes involved in various recreational sports (n=503; 272 females, 31.1±6.7 years of age) who were tested for sociodemographic factors (gender, age, experience in recreational sports, partnership/marital status, parenthood, educational level, and personal knowledge and awareness of doping). The DT was evaluated by one question, and participants were grouped into those who reported negative DTs and those who reported neutral/positive DTs. A lower neutral/positive DTs was detected in better educated athletes (OR=0.62, 95% CI: 0.43–0.89) and in participants who were parents (OR=0.66, 95% CI: 0.50–0.78). Males were more prone to neutral/positive DTs than females were (OR=1.41, 95% CI: 1.28–1.59). Sociodemographic factors are strongly associated with DT, and future studies should explore this problem in more detail, including evaluations of the impacts of other potential factors, such as health literacy, recreational sport type, training intensity, and social influences within specific recreational sport communities.
Keywords
gender identity, educational status, health knowledge, logistic regression models
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