Dietary Supplement Usage, Associated Knowledge and Attitudes of Sri Lankan National-Level Athletes: A Cross Sectional Study

Purpose: This study aimed to identify dietary supplement prevalence, reasons to use, supplement types, personal beliefs, knowledge and practices of athletes related to supplement use and doping in sports. Methods: Data was collected from 386 athletes (Male; 66.8%, Female; 33.2%, Mean age ±SD; 26.22±4.9), represented national pools of 12 sport types. Results: 354 (91.5%) of athletes used supplements including multivitamin (57%), electrolyte (49.7%), protein (43.5%), calcium (19.7%) and creatine (17.4%). Gender, social status, education and profession were not found to be determinants of supplement use, but sport type did (p < 0.05). Rugby and weightlifting players showed significant protein, multivitamin and creatine use per day (p < 0.05). Many athletes consumed supplements to boost their performance (41.8%) and strength (54. 5%). The majority (60.5%) claimed about self-decided supplementation plan. Male athletes had more dope-positive attitudes than females (P<0.05). Athletes who attended anti-doping educational workshops/were exposed to international competitions were more concerned about supplement content (p <0.05). A considerable number of multivitamin (51.8%), creatine (37.3%) and protein (14.8%) users consumed them without any scientific basis. Conclusions: Dietary supplements appear to be widely consumed by Sri Lankan national-level athletes, whereas a considerable proportion does not follow proper nutritional assessment before use.