Attitudes of coaches towards doping

Background. Coaches are usually held to be among the main actors of doping prevention campaigns. The aim of this study was to document certain attitud es of professional coaches faced with doping, and to evaluate how they conf ronted it on an everyday basis. Methods. Experimental design: prospective study by self-reporting questionn aire, Setting and participants: the questionnaire was mailed to the Last 80 0 graduated coaches (1994-1997) in the Lorraine region, Eastern France. The 260 responding roaches comprised 77 women and 183 men, the average age bei ng 30.8+/-8.0 years (mean+/-standard deviation). Results. 10.3% of coaches consider that an athlete may use doping with no h ealth hazard with the help of a physician, and 30.0% that an athlete who de clines doping has little chance of succeeding. 5.8% had used doping drugs i n the last twelve months (1 to 6 times), 13.5% of coaches mention that athl etes (1 to 5 per roach on average) told them they had been prompted to use doping drugs during the previous 12 months. 80.7% consider that the current methods of preventing doping in sport are ineffective, and 98.1% of them c onsider that they have a role to play within this context, but 80.3% consid er themselves badly trained in the prevention of doping. Only 10.4% have or ganized a doping prevention action during the last 12 months. Conclusions. In this study, professional coaches do not seem to be efficien t in the prevention of doping. Further education and training for coaches o n doping is advisable.