Recreational substance use among elite Australian athletes Dunn, Matthew, Thomas, Johanna O., Swift, Wendy and Burns, Lucinda 2011, Recreational substance use among elite Australian athletes, Drug and alcohol review, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 63-68, doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2010.00200.x. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Recreational substance use among elite Australian athletes Author(s) Dunn, Matthew orcid.org/0000-0003-4615-5078 Thomas, Johanna O. Swift, Wendy Burns, Lucinda Journal name Drug and alcohol review Volume number 30 Issue number 1 Start page 63 End page 68 Total pages 6 Publisher Wiley - Blackwell Publishing Place of publication Oxford, U. K. Publication date 2011-01 ISSN 0959-5236 1465-3362 Keyword(s) sport ecstasy cannabis cocaine Australia Summary Introduction and Aims.The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of illicit drug use among elite Australian athletes with a focus upon cannabis, ecstasy, meth/amphetamine, cocaine, GHB and ketamine; explore perceptions concerning the extent of drug use among this group; ascertain opinions regarding specific drugs of concern; and investigate predictors of recent drug use. Design and Methods. Data were taken from surveys with 974 elite athletes. Results. One-third of the sample had been offered or had the opportunity to use illicit drugs in the past year; despite this, the self-reported prevalence of all six drugs under investigation was lower than that reported by the general population. Sixteen per cent of athletes believed that there was a drug of concern in their sport, with ecstasy, cocaine and alcohol being nominated. Knowing other athletes who use illicit drugs, being offered or having the opportunity to use drugs and identifying as a ‘full-time athlete’ were significant predictors of recent drug use. Discussion and Conclusions. The present study found that one-third of the athlete sample had been offered or had the opportunity to use illicit drugs in the past year; despite this, there was low self-reported drug use. Despite media discussion regarding alcohol use in sport, alcohol was nominated as a drug of concern only by a small proportion of athletes, and further research investigating this issue may be warranted. Language eng DOI 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2010.00200.x Field of Research 119999 Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified Socio Economic Objective 970111 Expanding Knowledge in the Medical and Health Sciences HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2010, Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30040070 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Health and Social Development Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Wed, 09 Nov 2011, 11:18:04 EST Fri, 11 May 2012, 15:37:12 EST Fri, 11 May 2012, 15:38:46 EST Fri, 13 Jun 2014, 11:41:52 EST Thu, 11 Dec 2014, 17:28:35 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 15 times in TR Web of Science Cited 19 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 904 Abstract Views, 2 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Wed, 09 Nov 2011, 11:18:04 EST