Perception of Nigeria university athletes about performance-enhancing substances and drug testing

ABSTRACTThere are growing concerns that the use of performance-enhancing substances among amateur athletes may be on the rise globally. While most studies done in Nigeria have been limited to elite athletes, the fact remains that Nigeria university athletes constitute about 40% of the country’s representatives in international competitions. This study assessed the perception of university athletes about performance-enhancing substances and drug testing.A cross-sectional design was employed with the aid of semi-structured, self-administered questionnaires to gather data from 400 university athletes; information on socio-demographics, awareness and knowledge of performance-enhancing substances, perceptions about the use of performance-enhancing substances, drug testing and perceived factors influencing the use of performance-enhancing substances were obtained.The age range of respondents was 15–33 years with the majority (81.8%) of them being Christians. The majority (71.3%) of the respondents were aware of...