Dietary Supplementation of High-performance Canadian Athletes by Age and Gender

Objective: To determine dietary supplementation practices and opinions, preferred means for dietary supplement (DS) education, and antidoping opinions among elite Canadian athletes varying in age and gender.

Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Elite athlete training centers in Calgary, Canada and surrounding area.

Participants: A total of 582 high-performance athletes (314 male, 268 female).

Main Outcome Measures: High-performance athletes representing 27 sports with a mean age of 19.96+/-3.91 years completed a validated questionnaire assessing DS practices and opinions by recall. Sport categories included varsity, Canadian Sport Centre Calgary (CSCC), and National Sport School (NSS).

Results: There was extensive DS use, with 88.4% of participants taking>or=1 DS (mean of 3.08+/-1.87 DS per user) during the previous 6 months. Overall, sport drinks (22.4%), sport bars (14.0%), multivitamins and minerals (13.5%), protein supplements (9.0%), and vitamin C (6.4%) were most frequently reported. Older athletes were significantly more likely to report greater DS usage; to be advised by teammates, health food store retailers, and magazines; to prefer supplementation education via individual interviews; to claim awareness of anti-doping rules; and to perceive anti-doping compliance. Relative to gender, significant differences were observed for the types of DS reported; supplementation advisors; justifications for DS use; and awareness of anti-doping regulations.

Conclusions: Utilization of this validated and reliable questionnaire has the potential for broad use and provides insight into the factors that influence DS use in elite athletes.