Daily Exercise and Anabolic Steroids Use in Adolescents: A Cross-National European Study

Aim: The aim of this paper is to investigate the association between anabolic steroid (AS) use and intensive physical exercise among adolescents. Design/setting: The 1999 cross-sectional European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Data collection by standardized methodology using anonymous self-administered questionnaires completed in the classroom. Participants: National probability samples of a total of 18,430 16-year-old high school students from six European countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, the Slovak Republic, and the U.K.) Measurements: Besides AS use and physical exercise, questionnaire items selected for this study included tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use, indicators of other deviant behavior (self-harming thoughts and behavior, truancy, aggressive behavior), friends' use of AS, and perceived availability. Backward elimination with likelihood ratio tests was used to select the variables to be retained in a mutlifactorial model. Interactions of other indep...