CHILDREN TAKING STEROIDS TO EXCEL IN SPORTS, REPORT SAYS

CHICAGO-(AP) - Boys and girls as young as 10 are taking illegal steroids to
excel in sports, according to the first survey to look at use of
bodybuilding drugs as early as fifth grade.

The survey found that 2.7 percent of 965 youngsters questioned at four
Massachusetts middle schools are using anabolic steroids. Experts said that
represents a significant problem.

"We have thought that it has been a problem primarily of high-school and
college students," said Dr. Robert Blum, professor of pediatrics and
director of adolescent health at the University of Minnesota.

Besides building muscles, steroids can harm the liver, stunt growth and
cause other long-term ailments.

In some cases, coaches and parents may be buying steroids on the black
market and passing them along to the child athletes.

"A cycle of steroids costs a few hundred dollars," said University of
Massachusetts researcher Avery Faigenbaum, whose study was published
yesterday in the journal Pediatrics. "I don't know a lot of 10-year-olds who
have a couple of hundred dollars. I think we have to look at brothers and
sisters, I think we have to look at parents, I think we have to look at
youth coaches."

A major finding was that use among middle-school girls was almost as
prevalent as it was among boys.

Surveys of high-school students have found steroid use more common among
boys than among girls. A study published last year by Penn State University
researchers found that 2.4 percent of girls in ninth to 12th grades
nationally had used steroids at least once. The numbers for boys were twice
as high.

Faigenbaum said more emphasis on girls' sports may have evened the amount of
use.