Doping in Turkey, assessment of knowledge level of players about doping (Handball study case)

The purpose of this study is to determine the intelligence level of handball players for doping. Sample of this study is composed of Super League Handball players of Turkey Handball Federation, 148 players that have been randomly selected among 336 players from 24 teams (12 mens ? 12 womens) of the league in 2007-2008 season.For this purpose a survey, a tool used for data collection, is prepared based on expert opinion. The survey is conducted to a population of 40 handball players. The survey is re-assessed depending on the survey results by eliminating the defects in survey questions. Furthermore, a validity-reliability study is conducted for the survey. A reliability study is conducted by using Cronbach Alpha internal consistency method and the value obtained is 0.82.Throughout the study, a literature survey is conducted, the historical evolution of doping is examined and verified by using numerical data.Out of the selected 148 handball players, 50.7% of them are male (N=75), 49.3% of them are female, 105 of them have graduated from a university and 124 of them practice equal to or more than 9 hours a day.When the players are asked whether they use doping material in order to increase their performance, 97.3% of them responded to this question as ?no? whereas 2.7% of them responded as ?yes?.Monitoring the distribution related to the intelligence level of players about doping, 54% of them responded as they have partial information about doping, 27% of them responded as they know doping whereas 18.9% of them responded as they did not know doping.According to the results of this research, it has been observed that;According to the survey results, 16.9 percent of the male handball players and 10.1 percent of the female handball players have some knowledge about doping. The results also indicate that male players have higher level of knowledge about doping than female players. Furthermore, the survey results revealed the fact that some players are really dopingKeywords: Doping, handball.