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Sports and nutritional supplement use in USMC recruits: a pilot study
Colin R Young1, Mark B Stephens
1Department of Family Medicine, Uniformed Services University, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Objective:
This is a pilot study to describe patterns of nutritional supplement use by recruits entering the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC).
Methods:
A survey asking USMC recruits to self-report nutritional supplement use was administered upon entry to basic training. Simple descriptive statistics and prevalence ratios were used to describe patterns of supplement use.
Results:
The response rate was 65%. Half of respondents reported nutritional sports supplement use at some point before boot camp. The five most commonly supplements were: protein powder (43%), postrecovery workout drinks (36%), vitamin supplements (26%), creatine (26%), and nitric oxide (16%).
Conclusions:
Nutritional supplement use is frequent among recruits entering the USMC. The impact of supplement use on recruit fitness, training, and injury rates is not known.
