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Doping knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Ugandan athletes’: a cross-sectional study

Overview of attention for article published in Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, September 2015
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Title
Doping knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Ugandan athletes’: a cross-sectional study
Published in
Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, September 2015
DOI 10.1186/s13011-015-0033-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Haruna Muwonge, Robert Zavuga, Peninnah Aligawesa Kabenge

Abstract

Despite the development of advanced drug testing systems, both deliberate and inadvertent doping in sports is increasing in elite, amateur and school sports. As a result, alternative approaches that seek to influence an athlete's attitudes are needed to address the growing doping concerns that threaten both the health and well being of the athlete as well as the legitimacy of the sport. Therefore, the current study set out to establish the doping attitudes, knowledge and practices of professional Ugandan athletes, gathering information that may guide the design of more efficient doping prevention programs. This was a cross-sectional study of 384 professional Ugandan athletes from four contact team sports (basketball, football, handball and rugby) and two individual sports (athletics and cycling). An Interviewer administered questionnaire used contained; questions about the doping behavior, the performance enhancement attitude scale (PEAS), and doping use belief (DUB) statements. Approximately 60 % of the athletes reported familiarity with information on doping and that most of this information came from fellow colleagues (41.9 %), individual or team coaches (29.7 %) or the media (15.6 %). However, nearly 80 % of these athletes could not correctly define doping. The overall mean PEAS score, a measure of doping attitudes, for all study participants was 39.8 ± 14.8. Female athletes (PEAS: 41.1 ± 15.1), athletes with a prior doping history (PEAS: 44.1 ± 15.6) and athletes from the sport of athletics (PEAS: 56.6 ± 17.4) had higher mean PEAS scores than their respective counterparts. Regarding doping behaviors/practices, 9.3 % of the study participants had been offered a doping agent at some point, although only 3.9 % of the athletes acknowledged recent use. The confessed use of doping agents in this study was low, which may suggest that fewer athletes use doping agents in Uganda. However, there is still an urgent need for educational anti-doping programs to address the knowledge gaps observed amongst athletes in this study. Modifying the existing Physical education curriculum for inclusion of more content about doping in sport could provide the basis for doping prevention programs amongst amateur athletes in Ugandan primary and secondary schools.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 151 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Unknown 150 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 23 15%
Student > Bachelor 19 13%
Student > Master 16 11%
Researcher 13 9%
Student > Postgraduate 12 8%
Other 31 21%
Unknown 37 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Sports and Recreations 40 26%
Medicine and Dentistry 22 15%
Psychology 11 7%
Social Sciences 10 7%
Nursing and Health Professions 8 5%
Other 16 11%
Unknown 44 29%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 December 2016.
All research outputs
#14,790,071
of 23,661,575 outputs
Outputs from Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
#514
of 671 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#144,380
of 275,703 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
#7
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,661,575 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 35th percentile – i.e., 35% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 671 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.7. This one is in the 21st percentile – i.e., 21% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 275,703 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 9 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 2 of them.