Effectiveness of the world anti-doping agency's e-learning programme for anti-doping education on knowledge of, explicit and implicit attitudes towards, and likelihood of doping among Chinese college athletes and non-athletes

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the World Anti-Doping Agency's e-learning programme for anti-doping education on knowledge of, explicit and implicit attitudes towards, and likelihood of doping among Chinese college athletes and non-athletes. METHOD: Thirty-two young adults (including 16 college athletes) were recruited to receive the Athlete Learning Program about Health and Anti-Doping (ALPHA) intervention (Zh-hans version). Another 32 young adults were recruited for no-treatment control purposes. Before and immediately after the intervention, the ALPHA test, performance enhancement attitude scale, doping likelihood scale, and brief implicit association test (BIAT) were performed. Cortical activity during the BIAT test was monitored using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy instrument. RESULTS: Significant intervention effects were observed for knowledge (p < 0.01, η(2) = 0.21) and explicit attitude (p < 0.05, η(2) = 0.12) but not for doping likelihood (p > 0.05; benefit situation: η(2) = 0.04; cost situation: η(2) = 0.02). Compared with the non-athletes, the college athletes reported lower doping likelihood scores in benefit situations (e.g., financial gain, p < 0.05, η(2) = 0.10). Regarding the BIAT task, the experimental effect was successfully induced by different semantic associations between the concepts and the attitude (doping + like vs. doping + dislike). The mean reaction times (p < 0.01, η(2) = 0.36) and error rate (p < 0.01, η(2) = 0.34) in the doping-like block were higher than those in the doping-dislike block. Moreover, oxygenated haemoglobin (oxy-Hb) in response to BIAT interference in the temporoparietal junction-related channels was increased during the post-intervention test (p < 0.05, η(2) varied from 0.09 to 0.16). CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the online anti-doping education programme is partially effective among Chinese college athletes and non-athletes. Furthermore, our findings reflect enhanced cognitive control after the education intervention to suppress a prepotent implicit attitude towards doping. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13011-022-00459-1.