Trends of Drug Practices in Pakistani National Athletes for Amplification of Game / Sport Performance

Abstract

Aims: The primary aim of the present research was to provide awareness about the latest trends of drug practices of national athletes of Pakistan for the improvement of their sport performance. Methodology: The samples were national athletes belonging to various sports departments of national level. The athletes were selected using snowball and convenient sampling approaches. The questionnaire employed for the data collection was self-administered. With the optimistic consent of the athletes, 80 questionnaires were dispatched at their home addresses. Therefore, 62 athletes (77.5%) returned the filled questionnaires. The requisite information of all filled questionnaires was coded in SPSS-26 software to get the desired results. Moreover, descriptive statistics through frequencies and percentages was executed to draw the findings and further discussions of the present study. Results: The mean age of the national athletes was noted 34.17 years with 2.8 std. deviation and the age range was found between 30 to 38 years. The descriptive statistics of drug practices by national athletes calculated through occasionally, sometimes and frequently. Majority of the national athletes followed and practiced the trends of drugs while participating in their national games and championships to enhance their sport performance to approach the winning position and get the medals. Conclusion: It was concluded that athletes may not aware the side effects and hazards of these drug practices using anabolic steroids, charas, marijuana, aspirin, cocaine, and heroin. National associations and federations should conduct seminars and awareness workshops for the athletes prior to their participation in sport competitions so that national athletes may save themselves from the side effects and afterwards physical damages.