Author:

Keywords:

nutrition, epidemiology, obesity

Abstract:

Obesity becomes a major global problem. In general, military health recruiting standards are strictly determined (Body Mass Index (BMI) below 25.0 kg/m 2). The main objective of this study is to investigate if the recruiting standards offer some protection against overweight and obesity. Cross-sectional design. From 2004 till 2007, members of the occupational health service of the army recorded body weight, height, age and military rank of 10.318 belgian army men using a medical software program. For soldiers aged 20 to 29 years, 70,7% had a BMI below 25,0 kg/m 2, contrasting with only 22,3% in the age-category 50 to 59 years. For non-commissioned officers those figures were 68,0 and 22,3% respectively, and for officers 69,6 and 26,5% respectively. At 40 years of age and independently of their socio-economic position, only one army man out of two enjoyed a BMI less than 25,0 kg/m 2. The mean BMI (± SD) for soldiers in the age-category 20 to 29 years was 23,3 ± 2,5 kg/m 2, but this amounted to 27,8 ± 4,5 kg/m 2 in the age-category 50 to 59 years. For non-commissioned officers, those figures were respectively 23,4 ± 3,0 kg/m 2 and 27,7 ± 4,1 kg/m 2; and for officers 23,5 ± 2,4 kg/m 2 and 27,1 ± 3,4 kg/m 2 respectively. The military government should emphasize prevention in order to reduce healthcare costs and the disease burden due to the epidemic of overweight and obesity in the army. Stressing prevention should focus on the age group below 40 years.