Use of supplements by elite Japanese athletes in the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games

Abstract

Supplements are used to provide energy and nutrients that one's diet cannot adequately provide. There are also supplements for fatigue recovery and injury prevention. The Japan Institute of Sports Sciences (JISS) provides information on appropriate supplement use on its website. This information should be updated because the trend of using supplements among athletes varies depending on the market and the opinions of coaches, sporting event categories, age, and sex. Therefore, we aimed via this study to investigate supplement use among elite Japanese athletes.

We investigated supplement use among 245 elite Japanese athletes (128 males, 117 females) who joined the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games. Supplement use was investigated via a selfreported medical health questionnaire. In total, 229 (93.5%) athletes used more than one supplement within one year preceding the survey. The average number of supplements used was 3.6 ± 2.0 per athlete. Amino acids were the most popular supplements, and recovery from fatigue was the most cited reason for supplement use. Among the athletes, 2.2% did not know the type of supplements they were using, 2.6% used supplements for no reason, and 2.0% were unaware of anti-doping regulations. This indicates that some athletes do not consider the intended use of supplement and effects prior to use. Coaches were the most common source of information on supplement use. Consultation with experts, such as doctors, registered dietitians, and pharmacists, is required for proper supplement use. Coaches and experts may need to work together to ensure that athletes use supplements appropriately.