Awareness on Use of Steroid Drugs among Football Players

Abstract

Steroids are man-made chemicals that resemble hormones that are naturally made in the human body. The main role of steroids in sports is to enhance performance and reduce inflammation.  The aim of the present study is to assess the awareness of the use of steroid drugs among football players and the ill effects of steroid drug intake. A Cross-sectional study was done on 100 football players and veterans registered with the State Football Association. A pretested structured questionnaire assessing the awareness on the use of steroid drugs was the survey instrument. Both male and female football players and veterans within the age group 18-50 years were selected after obtaining informed consent. The sampling method used was a simple random sampling method. The questionnaire comprised of 10 open-ended questions and were administered through Google forms. 76% of the participants responded that they use steroid drugs at least once and 24% responded that they never used steroid drugs. According to the above survey, we conclude that there is a high rate of usage of steroid drugs among football players.