Preventive health perspective in sports medicine: The trend at the use of medications and nutritional supplements during 5 years period between 2003 and 2008 in football

Objective: To assess the prevalence of medication and nutritional supplement use in male Football Super League players and to observe the long term changes of players attitudes during 5 years period (4 seasons). Study Design: Retrospective study. Material and Methods: Review and analysis of 4176 doping control forms -declaration reports- about players medication intake including; Super League, UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League matches. Team physician was asked to document all medications and nutritional supplements taken by the Football Super League players in the last 72 hours before each match. Results: A total intake of 5939 substances were documented, of which almost half 49.2% (n=2921) were classified as medications and 50.8% (n=3018) were nutritional supplements. The average consumption per player was 1.42 substance/match; 0.70 were medications and 0.72 of nutritional supple- ments. The supplements used most frequently were NSAIDs 24.6% (n=1460) accounting for almost one in four of all reported supplements. Diclofenac Sodium was the most frequently reported active pharmaceutical ingredient. Second most frequently used supplements were vitamins (22.2%). The aver- age drug consumption reported per player has been increasing every passing year. It was 0.7 substance/match/player (0.4 medication; 0.3 nutritional supplement) in 2003-2004 season; was increased to 1.8 substance/match (0.8 medication; 1.0 nutritional supplement) in 2006-2007 season. Conclusion: The trends seen in this survey point to an overuse of NSAIDs and vitamins in comparison with other medications, amoung Turkish Super League football players (p

PDF

___

1. Blatter J. S. FIFAs commitment to doping free football. Br J Sports Med 2006;40:i1. [CrossRef]
2. Dvorak J, Graf-Baumann T, DHooghe M, Kirkendall D, Taennler H, Saugy M. FIFAs approach to doping in football. Br J Sports Med 2006;40Suppl I:i3-12. [CrossRef]
3. Paoloni JA, Orchard JW. The use of therapeutic medications for soft-tissue injuries in sports medicine. MJA 2005;183:384-8.
4. Baker J, Cotter JD, Gerrard DF, Bell ML, Walker RJ. Effects of indomethacin and celecoxib on renal function in athletes. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2005:37:712-7. [CrossRef]
5. Schwenk TL, Costley CD. When food becomes a drug:nonanabolic nutritional supplement use in athletes. Am J Ortho Soc Sports Med 2002;30:907-16.
6. Taioli E. Use of permitted drugs in Italian professional soccer players. Br J Sports Med 2007;41:439-41. [CrossRef]
7. Waddington I, Malcolm D, Roderick M, Naik R. Drug use in English professional football. Br J Sports Med 2005;39:e18. [CrossRef]
8. Tscholl PM, Junge A, Dvorak J. The use of medication and nutritional supplements during FIFA World Cups 2002 and 2006. Br J Sports Med 2008;42:725-30. [CrossRef]
9. Dvorak J, McCrory P, DHooghe M. FIFAs future activities in the fight against doping. Br J Sports Med 2006;40:i58-9. [CrossRef]
10. Regulations - Doping Control for FIFA Competitions and Out of Competition. Accessed at:http://de.fifa.com/mm/document/ afdeveloping/medical/6.17.%20fifa%20doping%20control%20 regulations_1533.pdf, on January 10, 2012.
11. Tscholl P, Alonso JM, Dollé G, Junge A, Dvorak J. The use of drugs and nutritional supplements in top-level track and field athletes. Am J Sports Med 2010;38:133-40. [CrossRef]
12. Thuyne WV, Delbeke FT. Declared use of medication in sports. Clin J Sport Med 2008;18:143-7. [CrossRef]
13. Corrigan B, Kazlauskas R. Medication Use in Athletes Selected for Doping Control at the Sydney Olympics (2000). Clin J Sport Med 2003;13:33-40. [CrossRef]
14. Huang SH, Johnson K, Pipe AL. The use of dietary supplements and medications by Canadian athletes at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympic Games. Clin J Sport Med 2006;16:27-33. [CrossRef]
15. Alaranta A, Alaranta H, Holmila J, Palmu P, Pietilä K, Helenius I. Self-reported attitudes of elite athletes towards doping:differences between type of sport. Int J Sports Med 2005;27:842-6. [CrossRef]
16. Alaranta A, Alaranta H, Heliövaara M, Airaksinen M, Helenius I. Ample use of physician-prescribed medications in Finnish elite athletes. Int J Sports Med 2006;27:919-25. [CrossRef]
17. Dieppe PA, Ebrahim S, Martin RM, Jüni P. Lessons from the withdrawal of rofecoxib. BMJ 2004;329:867-8. [CrossRef]
18. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). NHS Guidelines. Accessed at http://www.cks.nhs.uk/CksContent/TopicReview/ PreviousVersions/nonsteriodal_anti_inflammatory_drugs.pdf, on January 14, 2012.
19. Burke L, Deakin V. Nutritional Supplements in Clinical Sports Nutrition. Sydney:McGraw-Hill Australia, 2006.