Doping in sport - attitude and professional experience among physicians in Poland.

INTRODUCTION: The history of using performance-enhancing substances (PES) is long and it goes back to ancient times. At present, PES are employed at all levels of sport competition, starting from Olympic level contestants to individuals recreationally involved in various sports disciplines.

PURPOSE: e objective of the study was examining the views on doping in sports in a group of physicians, together with evaluating the frequency of their contacts with this phenomenon, in their professional activities.

METHODS: e investigation was carried out using a validated questionnaire developed by the authors. Questionnaire included 34 questions divided into 6 sections. In total, 257 individuals participated in the study. e percentage of answers was 75.81%.

RESULTS: Among the responders, 96.50% believed that using PES by sports competitors represented unethical behavior. 42% participants declared that they met doping problem during their professional career. Almost one-third of the physicians (28.79%) declared that during their work, they consulted patient suffering from adverse side effects resulting from using PES.

CONCLUSIONS: In Poland, physicians regard using PES as unethical behavior. They believe that a health care system professional should participate in counteracting doping in sports. Physicians - regardless of their specialty - are also exposed to PES-related problems in their professional work. In view of the above facts and the consistently increasing popularity of PES, extending the knowledge in this field among physicians seems to be of importance to allow for their offering better medical services to their patients.