Prevalence of Anabolic Steroids Abuse and Awareness of its Effects in Male Athletes in Southern Iran

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anabolic steroids abuse and awareness of its side-effects among athletes, body builders
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 277 randomly selected males, referred to 20 body building club in Bandar Abbas, Iran. A self-administered questionnaire applied for related data gathering. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 19, descriptive and analytical analysis, and chi square test.
Athletes’ mean age was 27.9(±7.9) years and most of them had education of university level (51.4%). In general, 44.4% of participants had used anabolic steroids at least one time and around 32 percent were current consumer
The most common anabolic steroids were diyanabol (25.2%), dorabolin and testestron (13.0%), stanazol (12.2%), anadrol and oksinandral (8.9 %). The main reasons for taking this medication were beautiful physique (43.5%), body power (18.3%) and achieve championship (16.8%). The most common side effects related to using the anabolic steroids that they declared were breast enlargement (48.9%), liver symptoms (48.6%), psychological disorders (38.8%), akne (37.7%), heart diseases (33.3%), sexual problems (31.9%) and urinary problems (23.6%). There was a significant relationship between athletes’ age and anabolic steroids abuse (p = 0.04). The findings of this indicating that anabolic steroids abusing seems to be increased and become a public health concern and the awareness of it is not satisfied as well, that implies the need to implement educational programs by health care professionals and sport specialists.