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JournalISSN: 2211-2669

Performance enhancement and health 

Elsevier BV
About: Performance enhancement and health is an academic journal published by Elsevier BV. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Athletes & Population. It has an ISSN identifier of 2211-2669. Over the lifetime, 223 publications have been published receiving 2038 citations. The journal is also known as: Performance enhancement and health.
Topics: Athletes, Population, Psychology, Harm, Coaching

Papers published on a yearly basis

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the circumstances which athletes say affect their (hypothetical) considerations of whether to dope or not and explore the differences between athletes of different gender, age and sport type.
Abstract: Aim This study aims to examine the circumstances which athletes say affect their (hypothetical) considerations of whether to dope or not and explore the differences between athletes of different gender, age and sport type. Methods 645 elite athletes (mean age: 22.12; response rate: 43%) representing 40 sports completed a web-based questionnaire. Participants were asked to imagine themselves in a situation in which they had to decide whether to dope or not to dope and then evaluate how different circumstances would affect their decisions. Results Multiple circumstances had an effect on athletes’ hypothetical decisions. The most effective deterrents were related to legal and social sanctions, side-effects and moral considerations. Female athletes and younger athletes evaluated more reasons as deterrents than older, male athletes. When confronted with incentives to dope, the type of sport was often a more decisive factor. Top incentives were related to qualified medical assistance, improved health or faster recovery from injury, the low risk of being caught and the threat posed to an elite career. Conclusions Our results reveal that numerous circumstances affect athletes’ thoughts on doping and athletes of different gender, age and sport type reacted differently to a variety of circumstances that may potentially deter or trigger doping. Particularly notable findings were the potential role of doctors in athletes’ doping and that the current punitive anti-doping approach seems to deter athletes, although the fear of social sanctions was almost as great a deterrent. Implications Anti-doping prevention strategies should be diversified to target specific groups of athletes.

63 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article performed a meta-analysis to quantify the effect of ego depletion and mental fatigue on subsequent physical endurance performance (42 independent effect sizes) and found that ego depletion or mental fatigue leads to a reduction in subsequent performance, and that the observed reduction in performance is higher when the person-situation fit is low.
Abstract: Two independent lines of research propose that exertion of mental effort can impair subsequent performance due to ego depletion or mental fatigue. In this meta-analysis, we unite these research fields to facilitate a greater exchange between the two, to summarize the extant literature and to highlight open questions. We performed a meta-analysis to quantify the effect of ego-depletion and mental fatigue on subsequent physical endurance performance (42 independent effect sizes). We found that ego-depletion or mental fatigue leads to a reduction in subsequent physical endurance performance (ES = -0.506 [95% CI: -0.649, -0.369]) and that the duration of prior mental effort exertion did not predict the magnitude of subsequent performance impairment (r = -0.043). Further, analyses revealed that effects of prior mental exertion are more pronounced in subsequent tasks that use isolation tasks (e.g., handgrip; ES = -0.719 [-0.946, -0.493]) compared to whole-body endurance tasks (e.g. cycling; coefficient = 0.338 [0.057, 0.621]) and that the observed reduction in performance is higher when the person-situation fit is low (ES for high person-situation fit = -0.355 [-0.529, -0.181], coefficient for low person-situation fit = -0.336 [-0.599, -0.073]). Taken together, the aggregate of the published literature on ego depletion or mental fatigue indicates that prior mental exertion is detrimental to subsequent physical endurance performance. However, this analysis also highlights several open questions regarding the effects’ mechanisms and moderators. Particularly, the surprising finding that the duration of prior mental exertion seems to be unrelated to subsequent performance impairment needs to be addressed systematically.

60 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the dominant quantitative research paradigm follows the legal/moral route, and the incongruence between reality and the faulty assumptions about reality limits the ecological validity of the research findings and argue for progressing quantitative social cognition research with new models, measurement tools and methodologies that shift away from the dominance of moralistic frames.
Abstract: Doping is typically referred to by some legal/moral heuristics, labelling the activity illegal and unfair, and condemning doping users as cheats and rogues Whilst these heuristics accurately reflect the general social norms and the official stance, qualitative research suggests that they may be in conflict with the way doping user athletes think, seeing doping as a morally questionable but effective means to achieving performance goals Congruently, quantitative studies show that athletes’ mental representations of doping are more closely aligned with substances representing functionality than legality, and they follow the behavioural pathways athletes choose with regard to doping use and revealing information about it As long as the dominant quantitative research paradigm follows the legal/moral route, the incongruence between reality and the faulty assumptions about reality limits the ecological validity of the research findings This concept paper argues for progressing quantitative social cognition research with new models, measurement tools and methodologies that shift away from the dominance of moralistic frames To facilitate this progress, two inter-related conceptual models are proposed The first is an incremental-functional model of doping to reflect the motivated, goal-driven and progressive nature of athletes’ involvement in performance enhancing practices The second is a model of an athlete doping mindset which conceptualises the link between the goal as performance enhancement and the functional and moral aspects of doping as purposive, goal-driven behaviour to enable empirical testing Quantitative investigations into doping-related social cognition should capture the moral-functional duality and acknowledge functionality to make meaningful contributions to anti-doping efforts

53 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results show that Australian students report using substances for study purposes at a higher lifetime rate than observed among US or German students, and the main reasons for use were to improve focus and attention, and to stay awake.
Abstract: Use of substances to enhance academic performance among university students has prompted calls for evidence to inform education and public health policy. Little is known about this form of drug use by university students outside the US. A convenience sample of n= 1729 Australian university students across four universities responded to an exploratory on-line survey. Students were asked about their lifetime use of modafinil, prescription stimulants (e.g. methylphenidate), supplements (e.g. ginkgo biloba), illicit drugs (e.g. speed), relaxants (e.g. valium) and caffeine in relation to enhancing study performance. The results show that Australian students report using substances for study purposes at a higher lifetime rate than observed among US or German students. The main reasons for use were to improve focus and attention, and to stay awake. Use of substances to enhance study outcomes was correlated with faculty of study, attitude and use of other substances. These results point to the need to develop Australian evidence to guide policy or regulatory responses to student use of substances to enhance academic performance. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

49 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a snapshot image is provided of what the steroids and other image or performance enhancing drugs market "looked like" in this particular city in 2013: how it operated; how different users sought out and purchased their PIED; the beliefs they held about the PIED they sourced; and the methods they employed to feel confident in the authenticity of their purchases.
Abstract: As with other illicit drugs, such as heroin or cocaine, illicit steroids and other performance and image enhancing drugs (PIED) have for some time been assumed to involve an inherent degree of danger and risk. This is due to the unknown and potentially dangerous substances present in them; fakes and counterfeits are of particular concern. Many of these ‘risks’ are unknown and unproven. In addition, a tendency to abstract these risks by reference to forensic data tends to negate the specific risks related to local PIED markets, and this in turn has led to much being missed regarding the broader nature of those markets and how buyers and suppliers interact and are situated within them. This article reports on research that sought to explore each of these issues in one mid-sized city in South West England. A snapshot image is provided of what the steroids and other image or performance enhancing drugs market ‘looked like’ in this particular city in 2013: how it operated; how different users sought out and purchased their PIED; the beliefs they held about the PIED they sourced; and the methods they employed to feel confident in the authenticity of their purchases. A forensic analysis was undertaken of a sample of user-sourced PIED as a complementary approach. The results showed almost all of these drugs to be poor-quality fakes and/or counterfeits. The level of risk cannot be ‘read off’ from forensic findings, and poor-quality fakes/counterfeits cannot simply be considered an attempt to defraud. Users believed they had received genuine PIED that were efficacious, and employed a range of basic approaches to try to ensure genuine purchases. Many, if not most, transactions at the ‘street’ level were akin to ‘social supply’ rather than commercial in nature.

48 citations

Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
20238
202227
202122
202026
201914
201812