Abstract
The Japan Anti-Doping Agency aims to eliminate doping to protect athletes’ health. However, unintentional doping violations can occur when athletes unknowingly consume prohibited substances. As future professionals, student pharmacists are expected to learn about anti-doping measures, while sports science students must learn how to comply with regulations. However, comparative studies on anti-doping awareness among students from different faculties remain limited in Japan. In this study we surveyed students from Nihon University who took Introduction to Anti-doping in the College of Sports Sciences, 2023, and student pharmacists who took the Science of Health and Physical Fitness II course in the School of Pharmacy, 2024. A comparison of the responses for each question of the survey revealed a significant difference in knowledge content regarding medicines. However, there were no apparent differences between the two faculties of participants in terms of awareness of anti-doping measures. Next, using qualitative research by text mining, we also found differences in anti-doping awareness among students of each school. First, the student pharmacists responses consisted of comments like: “Supporting athletes as a pharmacist,” “An interest in becoming a sports pharmacist” and “Consideration for patients who are athletes.” On the other hand, the Sports Science students responses consisted of comments like “Necessary for coaching athletes,” “Attitude toward doping as an athlete” and “Acquisition of knowledge through lectures.” In this study, qualitative analysis using text mining revealed that both the sports science students and pharmacy students constructed faculty-dependent behavioral goals related to anti-doping, demonstrating the usefulness of these courses.
