Archival ReportRisk Factors for Illicit Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Use in Male Weightlifters: A Cross-Sectional Cohort Study
Section snippets
Participants
Because most illicit AAS users are male and lift weights (1, 20, 21), we chose this known high-risk population for study (see further discussion of this rationale below). Using methods developed in prior studies (18), we advertised in gymnasiums for men aged 18 to 40 who could “bench-press 275 pounds for at least one repetition, now or in the past, for a psychological and medical evaluation.” As previously explained (18, 22), the bench-press requirement was simply a device to generate an
Participants
We recruited 250 men at the three study sites, of whom 17 were excluded from analysis as described above, leaving 233 evaluable participants (Table 1). Of these, 102 (44%) reported lifetime AAS use (42 in Florida, 39 in Massachusetts, and 21 in California); their age at first AAS use ranged from 15 to 37 years, with a mean (SD) of 22.8 (5.1) years. Only 6 (6%) users reported onset of use before age 17. Users reported a mean of 110 (174) lifetime weeks of AAS use (range 1–900 weeks) at a mean
Discussion
We explored risk factors for AAS use among 233 community-recruited male weightlifters, aged 18 to 40, from Massachusetts, Florida, and California. The study used a cross-sectional cohort design (19), wherein the study population was recruited without selecting for the outcome variable (AAS use) and where the outcome and exposure variables were assessed retrospectively. As discussed above, this design entails no threats to validity not already present in an equivalent case-control design and
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