PREVALENCE OF ?HEALTH SUPPLEMENT? USE AND ANDROGENIC ANABOLIC STEROID ABUSE AMONG ATHLETES IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Introduction:The use of anabolic steroids and the health supplements by athletes has been increasing over last few decades. The health risks associated with the use of them makes it necessary to study the patterns and prevalence of such behavior. Aim:To study the prevalence of Health Supplement and androgenic anabolic steroid use among the athletes in Jammu and Kashmir Methods and materials: Gyms were randomly selected over Jammu and Kashmir and the athletes were made to fill in the questionnaires after proper instruction by the investigator, the questionnaires with discrepancies and inadequacy were left out. Results:The study enrolled 214 athletes, both men and women all over J&K. The mean age of the participants was 26.98. The prevalence of health supplement use was 38.32% which mainly included protein based supplements, the prevalence of androgenic anabolic steroid use was 7.1%. Conclusion:There is high prevalence of health supplement use among the athletes in Jammu and Kashmir, the preva-lence of steroid abuse was also considerable. There is an urgent need for education of athletes about the potential risks of indulging in such behaviour.