Identifying the Unique Needs for Clean-Sport Education for Para-Athletes and Athlete-Support Personnel

An International Delphi Study

Abstract

Background: To date, clean-sport education has not been purposefully designed to address the needs of para-athletes and athlete-support personnel (ASP). To maximize the effectiveness of clean-sport education for these important groups, this study co-created the first set of recommendations for clean-sport education identifying their specific needs.
Methods: The Delphi method was used to develop the education recommendations. 134 stakeholders representing anti-doping, para-sport, and ASP with relevant expertise were invited to be panel members. In Round 1, the expert panel (n = 66) suggested potential items for clean-sport education delivered to para-athletes and ASP. The findings from Round 1 were then integrated with items from a review of relevant literature, interviews with 41 ASP, and nine focus groups with para-athletes across six countries to form a survey assessing the importance of 28 potential items for inclusion in the recommendations. In Round 2, an expert panel (n = 44; 67.7% response rate) completed this questionnaire. In Round 3, panel members (n = 38; 57.6% response rate) ranked for relative importance the topic areas rated highest in Round 1. Based on these rankings, a draft set of recommendations was created. In Round 4, panel members (n = 29; 43.9% response rate) rated the degree to which they accepted these recommendations and the feasibility of their delivery, as well as identifying possible barriers and facilitators to their implementation.
Results: The results of Round 2 and Round 3 were used to create a set of educational recommendations consisting of 18 items for para-athletes and nine items for ASP. In Round 4, the para-athlete recommendations were either fully (n = 18), mostly (n = 8) or partly accepted (n = 1) by the panel, whereas those for ASP were either fully (n = 19), mostly (n = 4) or partly accepted (n = 3). One panel member did not accept the ASP recommendations at all.
Conclusions: Para-athletes and ASP have been underserved in the design and delivery of anti-doping and clean sport education. Directly addressing their specific educational needs in relevant policy (e.g., WADA ISE) would help ensure their needs are effectively and consistently addressed in future education delivery.