Substance Use & Misuse, Early Online:1–9, 2014 Copyright C  2014 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc. ISSN: 1082-6084 print / 1532-2491 online DOI: 10.3109/10826084.2014.958859 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Prevalence and Correlates of Anabolic–Androgenic Steroid Use in a Nationally Representative Sample of 17-Year-Old Norwegian Adolescents Dominic Sagoe 1 , Cecilie Schou Andreassen 1,2 , Helge Molde 3 , Torbjørn Torsheim 1 and St ˚ ale Pallesen 1 1 Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christiesgate 12, 5015 Bergen, Norway; 2 The Competence Centre, Bergen Clinics Foundation, Vestre Torggate 11, 5015 Bergen, Norway; 3 Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Bergen, Christiesgate 12, 5015 Bergen, Norway Background: Anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS) use has been identified as a serious public health problem. Objectives: This study investigates the prevalence and correlates of AAS use among Norwegian adolescents. Methods: In 2012, a nationally representative sample of 2,055 17-year-old adolescents (963 males and 1,088 females) participated in a survey. The response rate was 70.4%. In addition to questions about AAS use, participants completed the Parental Monitoring Scale, the Family Relations/Cohesion Scale, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test C, the Mini-International Personality Item Pool-Five-Factor Model, the Eysenck Narrow Impulsiveness Subscale, the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking, the Short-Form Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale. They also answered questions about demography, gambling, smoking, snus, and narcotic use. Descrip- tive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Results: The lifetime prevalence of AAS use was 0.30% (0.52% in males and 0.09% in fe- males), while current prevalence was 0.25%. Moreover, 19.39% of the sample reported having an acquaintance who used or had used AAS. Having an acquaintance who used or had used AAS was significantly related to snus use, depression, aggression, extraversion, and conscientiousness in both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Conclusions/Importance: Our findings suggest a high prevalence of AAS use among Norwegian adolescents and denote the sig- nificance of social, personality, and health factors in adolescents’ exposure to AAS milieu. Address correspondence to Dominic Sagoe, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christiesgate 12, 5015 Bergen, Norway; E-mail: Dominic.Sagoe@psysp.uib.no Keywords anabolic–androgenic steroid, prevalence, Norway, adolescents, correlates INTRODUCTION Nonmedical anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS) use was primarily limited to elite athletes and bodybuilders pre- ceding 1980. However, in last few decades, the use of AAS has spread into the general population and is no longer limited to elite athletes and bodybuilders (Kanayama, Hudson, & Pope, 2008; Sagoe, Molde, Andreassen, Torsheim, & Pallesen, 2014). AAS are mainly used for increased muscle or physical strength, improved physi- cal appearance, and enhanced sports performance (Sagoe, Andreassen, & Pallesen, 2014). Other motives for AAS use include increasing/boosting: aggression, the possibil- ity of securing sports scholarships, concentration, coni- dence, occupational (non-sporting) functioning, personal security, psychological balance, physiological recovery or injury prevention, and sexual attraction (Sagoe, An- dreassen, & Pallesen, 2014). AAS are presently used worldwide by millions of individuals, many of whom have no athletic ambitions (Kanayama, Hudson, & Pope, 2010; Parkinson & Evans, 2006; Sagoe et al., 2014). Long-term AAS use has been associated with cardio- vascular pathology, hypertrophy of sebaceous glands, and alopecia (Kuipers, 1998; Kuipers, Wijnen, Hartgens, & Willems, 1991; Urhausen, Albers, & Kindermann, 2004). In males, long-term AAS use has been associated with male-pattern baldness, reductions in the levels of endoge- nous testosterone and gonadotropic hormones, growth of mammary glands, gynecomastia, sperm motility, and changes in libido among other syndromes (Bahrke & 1 Subst Use Misuse Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by 80.202.241.129 on 09/29/14 For personal use only.