prevalence of doping agents' abuse and male bodybuilders' knowledge about their side effects in kermanshah gymnasiums (2004)

introduction: today sport is one of the important social criterion and athletes are trying to be a champion. therefore, there is an increase in misuse of doping agents especially anabolic-androgenic steroid. this study was carried out to determine the prevalence of the doping agents' abuse among male bodybuilders' and to access their knowledge about their side effects in kermanshah gymnasiums in the year 2004. materials and methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out among male bodybuilders in kermanshah gymnasiums under supervising of population research center during the year 2004. using the simple random sampling , the required sample size was 839. data collection method was questionnaire which had been valid and reliable according to the similar researches which verified by experienced professors and a lot of questions to be asked about athletes' demography, doping agents' abuse and their knowledge about doping agents' side effects. their knowledge was stratified from unawareness to awareness .data were analyzed using spss and summarized in tables, charts and figures. results: on the whole 839 bodybuilders filled out the questionnaires. the prevalence of the doping agents' abuse was 38.3% (322 athletes) whose mean age was 20.97+9.86. in doping agents abusers, 291(94.5%) were less than 30 years old and 169(53.5%) had high school diploma. cratin among 215(66.8%)) athletes and nondrolone 138(48.7%) athletes were the most common agents that have been used respectively. an increasing in muscle mass was prevalently the most important cause of using doping agents among 100(31%) bodybuilders and power lifters. only 127 (39.4%) people of the doping agents abusers had some knowledge about side effects of these agents on each six important organs of the body. conclusion: in this study the prevalence rate of the doping agents' abuse among male bodybuilders was 38.3%. therefore a lot of bodybuilders are using doping agents whereas most of them are young and because of the little knowledge about the agents' side effects an analytic study is highly suggested to be a base for the interventional studies in order to challenge to this really serious problem and decrease it consequently.