Doping in elite sports in Germany: results of a www survey

Abstract

It is still unknown how many top-level athletes use banned drugs or practices. In a www survey, we used the randomized response technique to shed light on this issue. With the question “Have you ever used banned substances or methods in order to enhance your performance?”, we established a lower interval limit of 25.8% and an upper limit of 48.1%. In the current season we found at the lower end of the scale 20.4% and at the upper end 38.7% of athletes who admit to using illegal drugs or methods. Throughout their whole athletic career, we calculated 51.9% honest non-dopers and in the current season 61.3%.