Effect of Caffeine on Cycling Performance: A Literature Review

Assignment
1. Scenario #
My friend is a cyclist who takes part in various competitions. He is competing in the local
cycling club championships. He wanted to upgrade his performance. He utilised the
traditional methods adopted by the athletes that is of training regularly and taking up healthy
diet. Martin particularly aimed at focusing on decreasing his trial time (which means
finishing the races faster). Other participants of the club have caffeine before starting a race
as they were told that it is helpful. Since Martin knew that I am enrolled in a research subject
at University, he came to me for suggestion regarding the use of caffeine. He wanted to know
if it will help his cycling performance and, if so, if that is dose-dependent. Even though I
have not learnt the subject of nutrition in detail in my first year at University, I felt confident
that I can take on a search from the existing available literature on this topic. I will develop
the research question using the PICO format. Further, for preparing the assignment, I used the
Medline database for searching the available evidence by making use of the key words.
2. My answerable question:
In cyclists can the use of caffeineimprove their cycling performanceas compared to standard
methods of training and healthy diet, if so, if that is dose dependent?
3. PICO chart
PICO format is used to form this question. The first component is the population which for
this study is Cyclists. The second component is the intervention which is caffeine and its dose
dependency which has allegedly helped cyclists in improving their cycling performance. Next
component is the comparison, which is the standard methods used by athletes to maintain
fitness.Final component is the outcome, which is improved cycling performance.Therefore, it
can be said that the formed question of the research follows the PICO format effectively.

Population/patient/
problem
Intervention/
Issue
Comparison
Intervention/issu
e
Outcome
Keyword
s Cyclist, bicycling Caffeine, dose,
“Caffeine” OR
“dose”
Healthy diet,
exercise
Cycling
performance,
trial time,
athletic
performance,
improvement
,
Headings Cyclist Caffeine and its
dose dependency Standard
methods
Improved
cycling
performance
Database search
The research began with the formation of an answerable question using PICO format. A
research was conducted on the chosen scenario to get initial insight on the issues of cycling,
trial time, caffeine, its physiological effectsand its dose dependency. A range of search terms
were used in the research which are ‘cycling’, ‘caffeine’ ‘bicycling’, etc. Then the keyword
search terms that were prepared on the basis of the PICO format were searched in varying
combinations using the Medline database.