TRENDS IN THE USE OF LEGAL SUBSTANCES AMONG YOUNG ATHLETES

Abstract

Introduction: The use of legal sub- stances is an age-old phenomenon that is constantly changing and evolving. Drug use and its acceptance have also changed in the last 10 years. Objective: In our empirical research, we are investigating the health behaviours of physically active adolescents, who are increasingly being offered access to subsidised sports academies and other sports/activity facilities in our country. Our research aims to answer the question of the current level of substance use among young athletes. We also want to know the effec- tiveness of primary prevention. Material and method: The target group of our research is adolescents aged 15-19 years living in various regions of Western Transdanubia, studying in various secondary educational institutions in Győr, who participate in sports regularly and competitively, as well as their peers who only play sports at a hobby level. Our cross-sectional study is a pilot study, which was conducted by questionnaire data col- lection (N=151).
Results: What we can see in our pilot study is that they mostly started play- ing sport between the ages of 5 and 7 (57%). Their diet is characterised by health consciousness (34.9%), and

when we look at their risk behaviour, we see that 55.3% have never tried smoking and their first alcohol consumption was at the age of 14 (24.3%) and 15 (25%). Consumption of energy drinks is high among sportsmen and sportswomen and is perceived as less or not at all risky. There is evidence that although young people in secondary school participate regularly in sport, substance use (both legal and illegal) is still present among them. Discussion and conclusions:Substance use (both legal and illegal) is also present among high school youth athletes.

That is why we consider it an important task in our research to make the discovered facts known to the school, parents, coaches, sports associations and professionals alike.