The main purpose of the research was to find out how many recreational athletes use the permitted substances, how many of them are inclined to use prohibited substances, and what their knowledge of the functioning and side effects of permitted and prohibited substances was. We included 164 recreational athletes involved in group workouts, 34 men and 130 women. Their age ranged from 18 to 75 years. For the survey we used an anonymous questionnaire, which provided us with their general data, data on the use of alcohol and smoking, information on diet and doping, and knowledge of nutrition and doping.
The results showed that more than 50% of recreational athletes use dietary supplements. Proteins, vitamins and minerals are the most used. We examined the gender differences in the use of dietary supplements and found out that men are more likely to use dietary supplements. The greatest differences occurred in the use of isotonic, carbohydrate and protein. We also found out that there are no differences in the use of supplements among younger and older recreational athletes, except for the use of proteins that are more ingested by the younger ones. The opinion of the respondents on the knowledge of dietary supplements was mostly moderate or good, while the knowledge of doping was poor or moderate. When checking the actual knowledge about doping and dietary supplements, it turned out that their knowledge is poor, regardless of age. Knowledge of doping and dietary supplements was most often acquired by themselves, on the Internet or in other literature. In their opinion, users of doping should be penalized with a first time milder sentence and then second time lifetime ban, a ban for several seasons or a lifetime ban straightaway. The vast majority would never try doping.
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