The Epidemiology of Doping and Type of Doping Substances in World Sports

In the past three decades, performance-enhancing drugs have been increasingly taken by athletes. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of doping and type of doping substances in World Sports in 2004-2005. Information about the number of tests and positive tests in different sports were gained via World Anti-Doping Agency and International Olympic Committee websites and analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results showed that the number of tests in 2005 (183337 cases) increased about 8.4% when compared to 2004 (1691187 cases). Also, the percentage of positive tests in 2005 (3909 cases) increased 34.4% when compared to 2004 (2909 cases). In two years, 6818 positive tests were reported. Most positive tests were observed in cycling in two years (1089 cases). Most doping substances in two years were anabolic steroids (3055 cases), cannabinoids (1021 cases) and beta-2 agonist (990 cases). Totally, the results showed that use of doping substance in World Sports is high and unfortunately is increasing every year. Investigations have shown that high effect of this substance, distribution of this substance and athletes' low levels of knowledge regarding this substance are the main reasons of doping.