Doping knowledge, attitude, and ethical belief among Rwanda athlete support personnel

Summary

The role of athlete support personnel (ASP) in anti doping efforts is of paramount importance considering the significant influence of the ASP in athlete decision to use or not the illegal substances. To function as role models, ASP must have adequate knowledge and ethically correct attitudes towards doping. In addition, the high profile cases of ASP being sanctioned for their role in athlete doping demonstrates that the obligations of ASP are taken seriously by anti doping organizations. Therefore, gauging the extent by which ASP are knowledgeable with regards to doping is an important step to set up educational programs aiming to promote doping-free sport by complying with the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC). 

The current study is set out to establish the doping knowledge, attitude and belief among athletes support personnel in Rwanda. Gathering this information will guide to design more efficient and sustainable doping education programs and the promotion of clean sports in Rwanda.

Methodology

The study design is a cross sectional descriptive study using quantitative strategies of data collection. A pre-set standard questionnaire will be filled by participants. The research particularly targets coaches, trainers, team managers, team doctors, physiotherapists, team officials, sport federation staffs and officials and the ministry of sport officials. In fact, from every national sport federation, all technical staff and executive committee ( 8 on average) will be included in the study whereas in the clubs, only the technical staff ( 8 staffs on average) will be included. The target population consist 784 athlete support personnels. 

A questionnaire will be used to collect data. This questionnaire will comprise of four main sections. The first section will contain questions about demographic information, including age, gender, support role and time in that support role and the sport discipline. The second section will include questions about the content knowledge of the WADC, replicating the five question true-false format used by UK Sport (see Mazanov et al, 2009) revised for the 2021 update to the WADC. The topic areas were prohibited substances and methods, sample collection rules, anti-doping rule violation, athlete rights and responsibilities, nutritional supplements (e.g. application of WADC to supplements) and substance/method prohibition process (e.g. substance/method risks athlete health). A section on ASP obligations will also be introduced (e.g. ASP can be banned for life for doping possession). Scores out of five will be taken for each of the seven facets tested along with an aggregate score out of 35.

The third section will contain questions about the frequency (five point scale, “never” to “often”) and ethicality (five point scale, “sound” to “unsound”) of ASP behaviours in relation to anti doping, based on an adaptation of Dawson et al. (2001). The fourth section will assess ASP attitude towards doping in sport using the Performance Enhancing Attitude Scale (Petroczi & Aidman, 2009).

Results

This is an ongoing one-year research project whose results are expected to be presented in 2024.

Potential significance for Clean Sport

This study will address critical gaps in our understanding of Rwandan ASP’s knowledge, attitude and belief on doping and how these are linked to the broader social, political and economic contexts of anti-doping and clean sports in Rwanda. This information could then be used by the Ministry of sports and stakeholders and by institutions involved in anti-doping for doping prevention and to promote clean sport in Rwanda.