Clinical trial NCT04203992: Videogame for the Prevention of Doping and Supplement Abuse in Teenage Athletes
Official title: TRUE CHAMPION: An Educational Videogame Intervention for the Prevention of Doping and Supplement Abuse in Teenage Athletes
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Doping in Sport
Performance Enhancing Product Use
Keywords: Student athletes
Supplements
Videogame
Lead sponsor: McGill University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: International Olympic Committee
name: World Anti-Doping Agency
name: Phantom Compass
name: Digitalmill, Inc.
First posted: 2019-12-18
Enrollment: 284
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 13
Maximum age (years): 16
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: We aim to enroll 284 male and female student-athletes between the ages of 13 and 16. Participants will be assigned to either an intervention group (n = 142) or a comparison group (n = 142).
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The purpose of this research is to test the effectiveness of an interactive doping education videogame among student athletes. Specifically, the game will teach athletes aged 13-16 years about the risks of doping and will foster the values, motivation, and behavioural skills needed to avoid temptation and pressure to dope. The investigators hypothesize that student athletes who play the intervention game will have lower use of banned substances and sport supplements, greater intentions to stay clean, and will also show improvements in the cognitive and motivational antecedents to doping when compared to a control condition.

Detailed description: 284 student athletes will be enrolled in this two-arm quasi-experimental study. The participants will be boys and girls, aged 13 to 16 years who compete in any sport. Participants will be recruited and enrolled through partnerships with their school physical education and/or sport programs. Participants will complete baseline questionnaires assessing demographics, history of sport participation, and psychological variables related to doping prevention including knowledge, doping self-regulatory efficacy, motivation, attitudes, intentions, perceived norms, doping refusal, substance use behaviours, and doping related protective behaviours (e.g., checking the list of ingredients on medications). Participants will then be assigned to either an intervention group (n = 142; the doping videogame the investigators are developing) or a comparison group (n = 142). The comparison group will be given printed educational materials about doping education, developed by an accredited source (e.g., UNESCO). Assignment to the intervention or comparison group will be conducted at the level of the school to reduce the potential for contamination that could occur if intervention and comparison students were interacting in their school environment and sharing information they learned from the game. Participants from the intervention group will play five, 60-minute sessions over the course of one month (5 hours of total gameplay). Before the gameplay sessions begin, the Project Director and research assistants will orient the intervention group participants to the use of the intervention videogame. Players will be given a tutorial on an iPad demonstrating the mechanics of the game and how to use the iPad. Each player will have their own dedicated iPad that they will use during each game play session (this will be provided by the research team). Shortly after the last gameplay session is completed, participants from both groups will be asked to complete a questionnaire assessing the same psychological variables assessed at baseline as well as their gameplay experience. The psychological variables will also be assessed at three, six, and 12 month follow-ups.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Subject competes in a competitive sport at the high school level or higher
* Able to read and understand English

Exclusion Criteria:

* None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Use of banned substances
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Use of sport supplements
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Intentions to use banned substances and sport supplements
timeFrame: 12 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Knowledge
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Doping Self-Regulatory Efficacy
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Motivation
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Attitudes
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Anti-doping protective behaviours
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Doping refusal
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Gameplay experience
timeFrame: 1 month
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: McGill University
name: Lindsay R Duncan, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Goulet C, Valois P, Buist A, Cote M. Predictors of the use of performance-enhancing substances by young athletes. Clin J Sport Med. 2010 Jul;20(4):243-8. doi: 10.1097/JSM.0b013e3181e0b935.
citation: Boardley I, Smith AL, Mills JP, Grix J, Wynne C., & Wilkins L. Development of Moral Disengagement and Self-Regulatory Efficacy Assessments Relevant to Doping in Sport and Exercise. SportRxiv, 12 Oct. 2017. Web.
citation: Chan DK, Dimmock JA, Donovan RJ, Hardcastle S, Lentillon-Kaestner V, Hagger MS. Self-determined motivation in sport predicts anti-doping motivation and intention: a perspective from the trans-contextual model. J Sci Med Sport. 2015 May;18(3):315-22. doi: 10.1016/j.jsams.2014.04.001. Epub 2014 Apr 13.
citation: Nicholls AR, Levy AR, Meir R, Sanctuary C, Jones L, Baghurst T, Thompson MA, Perry JL. The development and validation of the Adolescent Sport Drug Inventory (ASDI) among athletes from four continents. Psychol Assess. 2019 Nov;31(11):1279-1293. doi: 10.1037/pas0000750. Epub 2019 Jul 18.