Abuse of Drugs in Sports: Statistical Evaluation of Doping In the Past 20 Years.
Abuse of drugs is paramount in most sporting activities and various competition levels across the world. Multiple reasons make athletes involve themselves with drugs; for instance, some want to boost performance, cure mental disorders, and reduce stress problems. The stress can be derived from performance pressure, sport retirement issues, bodily pain, and injury situations. The paper conducts statistical evaluations of drug abuse for the past 20 years within the sporting industry.
Before the development of organized sporting activities, doping acts were already in existence (Creado & Reardon, 2016). Drugs that enhance performance have undergone continued evolution, identification of doping strategies, which has been mainly stimulated by enhanced detection mechanisms of drug testing. Scientific research improvements have also led to the evolution process due to their discoveries. Sports organizations have banned the use of drugs that enhances performance, offering stringent penalties for people caught consuming the drugs. Addressing the abuse of drugs among sportspersons requires education, pharmacologic interventions, preventive actions, and motivational interviewing (Creado & Reardon, 2016).
According to Mazzeo (2016), despite the stern warnings, statics still exist among athletes using drugs. Doping test results tend to provide a reliable source of information about doping, which is performed through blood or urine analyses. The acquired data have been published by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) based on the Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs) as provided by laboratories accredited by WADA to conduct the research. Different sports, Olympics and Paralympic sporting activities have been accounted for in the data (Mazzeo, 2016). The table below provides these data for the past 20 years;
| Year Doping tests | Doping test | Total findings | % findings |
| 1996 | 89, 166 | 1,222 | 1.37 |
| 1997 | 93, 680 | 1,278 | 1.36 |
| 1998 | 93, 938 | 1,516 | 1.61 |
| 1999 | 96, 454 | 1,779 | 1.63 |
| 2000 | 106, 561 | 1,926 | 1.67 |
| 2001 | 118, 259 | 2,341 | 1.83 |
| 2002 | 117, 314 | 2,229 | 1.98 |
| 2003 | 125,701 | 2,075 | 1.90 |
| 2004 | 131,369 | 2,371 | 1.65 |
| 2005 | 151,210 | 2,447 | 1.80 |
| 2006 | 169,187 | 2,909 | 1.62 |
| 2007 | 183,337 | 3,909 | 1.72 |
| 2008 | 198,143 | 3,887 | 2.13 |
| 2009 | 223,898 | 4,402 | 1.96 |
| 2010 | 274,615 | 5,061 | 1.97 |
| 2011 | 277,928 | 4,817 | 1.84 |
| 2012 | 258,267 | 4,856 | 2.00 |
| 2013 | 269,878 | 4,723 | 1.76 |
| 2014 | 278,909 | 5,962 | 2.21 |
| 2015 | 278,907 | 6,700 | 2.33 |
| 2016 | 300,907 | 6670 | 2.55 |
The usage of various substances have also been provided, and according to Mazzeo et al. (2018), the data includes all athletes and completion level of all ages across the globe. The data is derived from self-reports. The positive test results and the table below indicate rates at which substances are used among diverse athlete individuals as conveyed from the study.
| Substance | Population of athlete | Estimated athlete percentage consuming substances |
| Banned substances by WADA | Sport elite athletes | About 2% for the previous year |
| Alcohol
| Athletes in colleges | Male athletes are estimated at around 75 to 93 % for the previous year Females estimates are 71 to 93% in the prior year |
| Anabolic steroids | Students in high schools | Estimates indicate about 0.7% have used the drugs for the past one year |
| Athletes in colleges | About 0.2 to 5 percent males and 0 percent to 1.6 percent for females | |
| Football professionals | About 9 percent used the drugs during the career | |
| Powerlifters within the competitive industry | Estimates of 67 percent used the substances during their career | |
| Cannabis | Athletes in colleges | Over the past year, about 28 percent used the drugs |
| Opiates | Football professionals | 52 percent used the drugs during their career days |
| Smokeless tobacco | Athletes in colleges | 23% for the previous year |
| Baseball players in colleges | About 40 to 50 % for the previous year | |
| Baseball professionals | About 35 to 40% for the previous year | |
| Football professionals
| About 20 to 30% for the previous year | |
| Stimulants | Athletes in college | About 3% for the previous year |
Elite sports have endured doping practices; however, various suitable models have not been utilized yet to come up with correct statics (Mazzeo et al. 2018). The evaluations regularly are not conducted, and publishing of the results not also done usually. Access to research results also is challenging. However, according to current data, about 14 to 39% of professional athletes across the world have performed doping activities (Mazzeo et al. 2018). The figure is just an estimate, continued research in this area still requires adequate attention.
The decisions and discussions of doping need enhancement through the use of scientific reliable information that displays doping prevalence with the results made readily available to specific authorities. The process has undergone fluctuation processes depending on the groups. Averagely, the prevalence figure of athletes caught with doping acts is around 1 to 2%; however, the data is subject to changes periodically (Mazzeo et al. 2018).
Different efforts exist towards eradicating doping in sports; however, the process still undergoes tremendous changes. The evaluations of these data guide anti-doping professionals to effectively enact their policies, rules, and regulations towards eradicating the problem within the sporting industry (Mazzeo et al. 2018). Anti-doping efforts are likely to fail if the dopers repeatedly fraud non-dopers or when the doping test provides insufficient information used to control the problem. Athletes across the world have vowed to avoid doping; therefore, anti-doping and athlete professionals should come together to reduce the problem (Mazzeo et al. 2018).
References
Creado, S., & Reardon, C. (2016). The sports psychiatrist and performance-enhancing drugs. International Review of Psychiatry, 28(6), 564-571.
Mazzeo, F. (2016). Drug abuse in elite athletes: Doping in sports. Sport Science, 9(2), 34-41.
Mazzeo, F., Altavilla, G., D’elia, F., & Raiola, G. (2018). Development of doping in sports: Overview and analysis. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 18(3), 1669-1677.