Introduction: Often considered a legitimate strategy to enhance health and
performance, the consumption of nutritional supplements (NS) has become
a common practice which frequently results in unintentional doping among
athletes. Despite a probable association between NS and doping, there are limited
studies on this topic in developing countries such as Malaysia. Thus, this study
aimed to identify the prevalence of NS usage among national elite athletes and
assess their knowledge and attitude regarding its use and doping.
Methods:
This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Malaysian National Sports
Institute among national elite athletes (n=50) recruited via convenience sampling.
The athletes completed a self-administered questionnaire documenting their
demographic characteristics, training information, NS consumption, knowledge
and attitude related to supplement-doping. The total knowledge and attitude
scores were compared according to demography, training information, and NS
consumption.
Results: The prevalence of NS use among the athletes was 72%.
NS usage was significantly associated with training duration (p=0.029), source of
nutrition information (p=0.047) and self-exploration on supplements (p=0.045).
Supplement-doping knowledge was significantly higher among athletes with
tertiary level education (p=0.027), NS users (p=0.044), those obtaining information
from nutritionists (p=0.048) and those who had attended nutrition workshops
(p