ABSTRACT
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is the global governing body for anti-doping in sport and aims to “bring consistency to anti-doping policies and regulations within sport organizations and governments” worldwide. This chapter sets out to provide an updated review and discussion of current estimates of doping prevalence in elite sport. It covers analytical data from WADA-accredited laboratories, along with direct and indirect estimates of doping use reported in the literature. As with self-reported data, social projections of doping use also evidence-biased perception, where the bias is a function of involvement, sensitivity of the behaviour and the reference frame in which the estimation is solicited. Typically, projected questioning leads to higher doping prevalence estimates compared to official laboratory estimates and self-reported doping behaviour. Intelligence on the prevalence of doping in elite sport is critical to the development of anti-doping policy and practice, and the implementation and evaluation of interventions.
