Sports and Nutritional Supplement Use in USMC Recruits: A Pilot Study

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.