Doping in athletics Exploring attitudes among competitive runners in Tanzania
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Abstract
Doping continues to be a significant issue in competitive sports, posing ethical, health, and legal challenges while undermining fair play and integrity. Attitude toward doping is an important predictor of doping behaviour. This study aimed to assess the attitudes toward doping among Tanzanian running athletes and to examine how demographic factors of age, gender, education level, and experience, influence these attitudes. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 117 athletes across 12 running camps in the Arusha and Dar es Salaam regions. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Mann-Whitney test. The results indicated that Tanzanian competitive running athletes exhibited a less permissive attitude toward doping, with a PEAS score of 41.12 ± 11.09. Age significantly influenced attitude (p = .03), while gender, education level, and experience did not significantly impact attitude (p > .05). The study underscores the need to strengthen anti-doping education programs, raise awareness of the long-term health risks associated with performance-enhancing substances, and ensure that anti-doping policies are rigorously enforced. Future research should explore additional factors, such as peer influence and the specific competitive environments in which athletes train and compete, to better understand the complex factors that influence doping attitudes.
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