The Adolescents Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) prevention program. Background and results of a model intervention
L. Goldberg, D. L. Elliot, G. N. Clarke, D. P. MacKinnon, L. Zoref, E. Moe, C. Green and S. L. Wolf
Department of Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, USA.
OBJECTIVE: To develop and test a school-based intervention to prevent
anabolic androgenic steroid use among high-risk adolescent athletes.
DESIGN: Nonrandom controlled trial. SETTING: Two urban high schools.
PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-six adolescent football players at the experimental
school and 24 players at the control school. INTERVENTION: Eight weekly,
1-hour classroom sessions delivered by the coach and adolescent team
leaders, and eight weight-room sessions delivered by research staff. The
intervention addressed sports nutrition and strength training as
alternatives to steroid use, drug refusal role play, and antisteroid media
campaigns. OUTCOME MEASURES: A preintervention and postintervention
questionnaire that assessed attitudes toward and intent to use steroids and
other drugs; knowledge of drug effects; and diet, exercise, and related
constructs. RESULTS: Compared with controls, experimental subjects were
significantly less interested in trying steroids after the intervention,
were less likely to want to use them even if their friends used them, were
less likely to believe steroid use was a good idea, believed steroids were
more dangerous, had better knowledge of alternatives to steroid use, had
improved body image, increased their knowledge of diet supplements, and had
less belief in these supplements as beneficial. CONCLUSIONS: Significant
beneficial effects were found despite the sample size, suggesting that the
effects of the intervention was large. This outcome trial demonstrates an
effective anabolic androgenic steroid prevention program for adolescent
athletes, and the potential of team-based interventions to enhance
adolescents' health.
