Researchers Mónica Sousa and Luís Horta from the Metabolism and Nutrition unit won funding from the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) to investigate the link between doping and dietary supplementation in elite athletes.
This funding was awarded on June 2, 2022 and is applied through WADA's 2022 Social Science Research Grants.
We talked to the researchers so that they could tell us the importance of this award for the course of this investigation.
What questions will you pursue, in the scope of this work?
The hypotheses of the current research project are as follows:
- The behaviors towards dietary supplements of some Portuguese elite athletes may make them susceptible to doping.
- Some Portuguese elite athletes may report attitudes that might lead them to dope.
- Attitudes towards doping may be stronger among the following Portuguese elite athletes: users of dietary supplements within the categories of ergogenic and medical sports supplements; users of dietary supplements for reasons leading to enhanced sports performance; those who rely on unqualified personnel for advice; those who do not check whether dietary supplements they use have been tested for the presence of prohibited substances; and those who have never attended an anti-doping education session.
- Some Portuguese elite athletes may report a greater belief on the effectiveness of dietary supplements on performance enhancement, namely: users of dietary supplements within the categories of ergogenic, medical and sport food and drink supplements; users of dietary supplements for reasons leading to enhanced performance; those who rely on unqualified personnel for advice; and those who have never attended an anti-doping education session.
- Portuguese elite athletes who report a greater belief in the effectiveness of dietary supplements on performance enhancement may report more favorable attitudes towards doping.
What does this award mean to you/research team?
It is a great joy and honor for us to receive this award. In addition to the award itself, this distinction also represents the research that we have carried out in recent years in the area of supplementation in competitive sports and recognizes the value of the research that we intend to continue to do in this area.
What will this award change for your research? Does it open new doors/new possibilities?
This work, together with the Portuguese Football Federation, and with the support of the Olympic Committee of Portugal, the Paralympic Committee of Portugal and IPDJ, will allow the interconnection of these institutions, with the aim of getting to know our athletes better and developing strategies in line with the current needs, particularly in the context of supplementation and anti-doping. In this sense, the results of this work will also open new doors and possibilities for research, namely intervention studies and the customization of education and awareness programs to meet the needs revealed by athletes in different modalities.