Study: US servicemen lose more than 650,000 workdays each year due to being overweight – Reuters

“The military and other services should focus on getting back into shape,” said Tracey Perez Kelmos, director of the Center for Health Services Research at Military Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, who led the study. . Overweight and obese service members are more likely to be injured and less likely to endure the physical demands of their occupation. The U.S. military loses more than 650,000 workdays every year due to overweight and obesity-related health care costs exceeding $1.5 billion a year for current and former service members and their families, reports the Associated Press.
There is no sign that this trend is ending, Kelmos said, confirming longstanding concerns about the readiness of US combat forces. Military leaders have been warning of the impact of obesity on the U.S. military for more than a decade, but the lingering effects of the pandemic underscore the need for urgent action, the brigadier told the retired Stephen Cheney, co-author of the report on the issue. “The numbers haven’t gotten better, Cheney said. They just get worse and worse.”In fiscal year 2022, for the first time, the U.S. military fell short of its recruiting goal without calling up as many as 15,000 recruits, a quarter of the requirement. This is largely due to the fact that three-quarters of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service for several reasons, including being overweight. According to the report, being overweight is the biggest individual disqualifier, affecting more than 1 in 10 potential recruits. “It’s devastating. We have a dramatic national security problem,” Cheney said.The extra weight can make it difficult for military personnel to meet basic physical fitness requirements, which vary by branch of service. In the military, for example, if soldiers fail to pass the Army’s Combat Fitness Test, a recently updated measure of ability, it could lead to probation or the end of their military career.
Kelmos and his team analyzed the medical records of all active duty soldiers in the military health data repository. Of nearly 200,000 soldiers, almost 27% who were healthy before the pandemic were overweight. And nearly 16% of those who were previously overweight were obese. Before the pandemic, about 18% of soldiers were obese; in 2021, this figure has increased to 23%.The researchers relied on standard BMI, or body mass index, a calculation of weight and height used to classify weight status. A person with a BMI between 18.5 and 25 is considered healthy, while a BMI between 25 and less than 30 is considered overweight. A BMI of 30 or more is classified as obese. Some experts argue that BMI is a flawed measurement that does not take into account muscle mass or underlying health conditions, although it remains a widely used tool. The study aligns with trends noted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which previously warned that nearly one in five US service members were obese in 2020.
Putting on extra pounds during the pandemic wasn’t just a military issue. A survey of American adults last year found that half had gained weight after the first year of the COVID-19 emergency. Another study showed a sharp rise in childhood obesity during the pandemic. In the United States, more than 40% of American adults and nearly 20% of children suffer from obesity, according to the CDC.