Published COVID, Steroids and Training Study

Zoob1234

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Aug 7, 2019
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Hi guys,

I am currently recruiting participants for some research I am conducting as part of my PhD at the University of Birmingham, England. I am investigating factors influencing training and anabolic steroid use with strength-training communities, including COVID-19. This research is part of the work of our research group looking to arrange educational workshops for – and inform the practice of – harm reduction services.


The study involves completing an anonymous survey four times over an 18-month period. If you are male, have used anabolic steroids during the last 12 months, at least 18 years old, and would like to participate, please click on the link below to read more about the study, and if still interested, complete the first survey. By taking part you will be entered into a prize draw where you can win a £100, £50 or a £25 Amazon voucher.



https://lime.bham.ac.uk/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=124769&lang=en



Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.



Cheers.
 
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So this research is in correlation to harm reduction of using Anabolic Steroids?

And may I ask how long each survey will be about?
 
Yeah, we are hoping that we can use this data to provide services more specific to the needs of steroid users. By sharing what we find in this study with needle and syringe programs and harm reduction services, we hope to educate them and aid in keeping them up to date with all the information coming out of image and performance enhancing drug research.

My research group hosted a image and performance enhancing drug workshop to harm reduction services and other academic researchers last year at the University of Birmingham, using data the research group has gathered so far from our university and others such as New South Wales University and Teeside University. We had current and past users come in and provide their stories and present issues with current harm reduction services. So hopefully with the information we gather from this study and others, we can make this a regular and up to date event.

Each survey should take no longer than 10 minutes. The first survey is slightly longer than the other three, so the later surveys will be much faster to complete :)
 
If there is anything you'd like to see more or less of from harm reduction or support services please let me know, as my research group is putting together an interview schedule for another study aimed at harm reduction services.
 
If there is anything you'd like to see more or less of from harm reduction or support services please let me know, as my research group is putting together an interview schedule for another study aimed at harm reduction services.
Would definitely be interested in finding out more about the next study.
 
@Zoob1234 good to see you still on the site. I’m curious in the uptake of the study, did you have many participants, is it still ongoing?
 
Basically this study aims to follow a number of individuals who are using anabolic steroids over three time points, for example, when on cycle, when off cycle, and immediately before starting a new cycle. We will also be looking at similar alternating patters with guys who are blast/cruising (i.e., when blasting, when cruising and immediately before another blast). We are looking to see if there are associations between any psychological factors that may influence the use of anabolic steroids and changing protocols of use. Alongside this we are looking at the presence (if any) of harms associated with use, effects on training, lasting effects from the COVID pandemic, and ranges of doses used.

This study will use an anonymous mobile phone application to send out surveys twice per day for three 14-day periods (i.e., on cycle, off-cycle, immediately before starting another cycle). This will help collect a rich set of data to deepen our understanding of the relationships (if any) between the factors of interest, to build up a detailed picture of how different protocols of use are conducted, any differences in the prevalence of undesired effects between protocols/doses, and differences in the psychological factors (i.e., motivation) between changes in protocols. We will feed this information back to harm reduction services to build their understanding of these effects and hopefully provide them with the information they need to develop services that are specific and suited to those who use anabolic steroids.

This study aims to maintain anonymity and confidentiality. Therefore, to use the app no phone numbers, GPS tracking or any form of identification to be able to identify a participant will be collected. If emails or contact over forums DMs are used, these methods of contact will not be saved or reported in this study, and will be deleted as soon as data collection is over.

The study is intensive and does last a fair while (depending on the duration of cycles or blast/cruise periods) so there is a prize draw for Amazon vouchers for participants who have an 80% or more response rate. We are still putting this together, due to being stalled by COVID impacting our funding. But once it is up and ready to go I will make a post about it.

I am happy to provide any more information if needed so please feel free to contact me.
 
@Zoob1234 good to see you still on the site. I’m curious in the uptake of the study, did you have many participants, is it still ongoing?
Thank man :)

So for the study I initially made the post about, we had 237 participants from a multitude of online forums complete, which was awesome. The survey went global and reached out to 42 different countries. It's on going, but only for those who completed the first time point back in April. We have managed to put together a preliminary paper from the study which is being passed through review at the moment. Once it is finally accepted I'll make a post about it if anyone wishes to read it. There will be a follow up paper later in the year as the main study has a few months left to go before it is over. Again, once that's passed review I'll make it available to the guys on here.

This second study will need around 25-30 participants so is a small study by comparison. But requires participants who are really invested due to it's intensive nature.
 
That’s a great take up, really glad you got those numbers!

The members and myself definitely would love to see the paper when it’s passed review! Post it here so we can keep everything together. 🙂

Hope the rest of the study goes well for you, have just changed the title of this thread to writing up as you’re no longer recruiting.

Your second study sounds great, always good to have a deeper look when you have the right participants.

Best of luck!
 
That’s a great take up, really glad you got those numbers!

The members and myself definitely would love to see the paper when it’s passed review! Post it here so we can keep everything together. 🙂

Hope the rest of the study goes well for you, have just changed the title of this thread to writing up as you’re no longer recruiting.

Your second study sounds great, always good to have a deeper look when you have the right participants.

Best of luck!
Thank you :)

I will do. Fingers crossed then engagement will be just as awesome :)

Hope you're all well despite this pandemic.
 
Thank you to everyone who took part in this study. I have provided the link to the paper if anyone wishes to take a look :)

Frontiers | The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Male Strength Athletes Who Use Non-prescribed Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids | Psychiatry (frontiersin.org)

If you have any feedback, please feel free to contact me.
Awesome, I’ve it bookmarked to read through later but from what I can see it came out well and I actually thought there would be more longer lasting MH effects. So interested to see the data.

Thanks so much for keeping us updated! Appreciate it! Best of luck in the future.
 
Awesome, I’ve it bookmarked to read through later but from what I can see it came out well and I actually thought there would be more longer lasting MH effects. So interested to see the data.

Thanks so much for keeping us updated! Appreciate it! Best of luck in the future.
Thank you, let me know what you think. Yeah we did too. We have a follow up study underway at the moment so we should hopefully be able to explain more of our findings then.

Anytime :) Thank you :)
 
Thank you, let me know what you think. Yeah we did too. We have a follow up study underway at the moment so we should hopefully be able to explain more of our findings then.

Anytime :) Thank you :)
I’ll get back to you with my thoughts for sure! Looking forward to the follow up.
 
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