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Flowchart of U.S. Army applicants who went through selected MEPS including ARMS Step Testing. ARMS, Assessment of Recruit Motivation and Strength; EBF, exceed body fat; WQ, weight for height or body fat accession standard qualified.
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The Assessment of Recruit Motivation and Strength (ARMS) Study was conducted at six Military Entrance Processing Sites during 2005-2006. The objectives were to compare morbidity and attrition of Army accessions who exceeded body fat (EBF) accession standards compared to weight for height or body fat qualified (WQ) and to compare among the WQ subset...
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To successfully complete specialist police selection, officers must be physically fit. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between performance on selected anthropometric and fitness tests and successful selection into a specialist police unit. Thirty-two male police officers (mean age = 29.48±4.99 years) participated in a Barr...
Citations
... The military expends a significant amount of resources to recruit, train and outfit a SM to be ready to deploy (9). Consequently, each SM represents a significant investment to the Department of Defense and the nation. ...
There is a need to be able to accurately evaluate whether an injured service member is able to return to duty. An effective assessment would challenge and measures physical and cognitive performance in a military-relevant context. Current assessments are lacking in one or more of these aspects. The simulation and data capture abilities of virtual reality systems are promising for use as the basis of multidimensional assessments. The team has previously developed a military-specific assessment in the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) called the Readiness Evaluation During simulated Dismounted Operations (REDOp). Due to notable limitations in the original assessment, we have developed the next iteration, REDOp2. The assessment is able to challenge and measure a broader range of physical and cognitive performance domains in a more streamlined fashion. While limited to facilities with a CAREN, REDOp2 has the potential to provide an effective tool for highly trained and experienced wounded service members that require thorough assessment prior to returning to duty to ensure the safety of the team and mission. This methods paper describes the specific limitations in REDOp, how they were addressed in REDOp2, and suggested next steps to prepare the assessment for implementation.
... The cost to recruit, train, and move Soldiers to their first operational assignment is ~$60,000 per Soldier (Niebuhr et al., 2013). Additional costs are accrued as ~30% of Army personnel leave the service before the completion of their initial contract, with the highest attrition rates in the Army being among infantry personnel (Marrone, 2020). ...
... Adopting a negative coping style can increase soldiers' mental stress or mental tension, solve problems negatively and passively, which tends to immerse individuals in negative emotions, reduce coping ability, and harm individual health status, as well as being detrimental to the advancement of military tasks and the improvement of troop combat effectiveness (Zhang et al., 2017). As an important supplement and important component of the force, guiding recruits to adopt a positive coping style will keep them in a good emotional state, which is important for them to quickly adapt to the force, maintain recruits' physical and mental health, and ensure the completion of military tasks (Niebuhr et al., 2013;Burbage et al., 2021). Therefore, it is important to understand the recruits' choice of coping styles and pathways of action in psychological stress situations during military missions. ...
The choice of coping style of recruits under psychological stress in the process of military task execution has been an important topic in the promotion of military operations and cohesion of military forces. Taking a positive coping style under psychological stress can help recruits overcome the negative effects of stress and improve military morale and group combat effectiveness. Although soldiers' psychological stress in the process of military mission execution having an impact on coping style has been studied by a large body of literature, very little literature has focused on the mechanism of self-efficacy and social support between recruits' psychological stress and coping style from the person-environment fit perspective. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the impact of recruits' psychological stress on coping style through a chain mediation model and to discuss the role of self-efficacy and social support in this relationship. Two waves of survey data were utilized to test the research hypotheses on a sample of 1028 Chinese recruits performing military tasks. The results indicated that recruits' psychological stress negatively impacted positive coping styles and positively correlated with negative ones. In addition, self-efficacy and social support mediated the relationship between psychological stress and positive coping style, and self-efficacy mediated the relationship between psychological stress and negative coping style. More importantly, self-efficacy and social support play the chain mediating effect between psychological stress and positive coping style.
... While the purpose of this study was to look at diet quality, and not specifically BMI, 48% of cadets in this study were found to be overweight or obese based on their BMI. Although BMI is not a direct indicator of health for athletes or military personnel due to the increased lean body mass observed in these populations, research shows that a higher BMI may lead to early dismissal from the ROTC program or service [2,30,31]. Higher BMI and poor nutritional status also contribute to increased healthcare costs from injury and chronic disease, and lost productivity in the military [19,32,33]. ...
Military service is inherently demanding and, due to the nature of these demands, the term “tactical athlete” has been coined to capture the physical requirements of the profession. Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets are a unique subset of the military service community, and the complexity of their training and educational pursuits increases their susceptibility to unhealthy eating patterns. The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the relationship between the perceived barriers to healthy eating, food insecurity, sports nutrition knowledge, and dietary patterns among Army ROTC cadets. The usual dietary intake was gathered from (N = 37) cadets using the General Nutrition Assessment Food Frequency Questionnaire. The perceived barriers to healthy eating were measured using a set of scales consisting of social barriers (6 items, α = 0.86), access barriers (2 items, α = 0.95), and personal barriers (2 items, α = 0.67), with higher-scale scores indicating greater perceived barriers. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to measure the association between the energy-adjusted dietary intakes and the scores on the barriers scales. Energy-adjusted intakes of calcium (ρ = −0.47, p ≤ 0.01), fiber (ρ = −0.35, p = 0.03), vitamin A (ρ = −0.46, p ≤ 0.01), vitamin C (ρ = −0.43, p ≤ 0.01), fruit (ρ = −0.34, p = 0.04), and vegetables (ρ = −0.50, p ≤ 0.01) were negatively correlated with the perceived personal barrier scores. The energy-adjusted intakes of fiber (ρ = −0.36, p = 0.03), vitamin C (ρ = −0.37, p = 0.03), and vitamin E (ρ = −0.45, p ≤.01) were negatively correlated with perceived social barriers, while energy-adjusted vitamin C intake was negatively correlated with perceived access barriers (ρ = −0.40, p = 0.01). Although additional research is needed to better understand the dietary patterns of ROTC cadets, among the participants in this study, greater perceived personal, social, and access barriers were associated with less nutrient-dense eating patterns. Interventions aimed at addressing such barriers may prove beneficial for the improvement of diet quality among ROTC cadets.
... The United States has an all-volunteer military derived from the civilian population for whom adequate PA preparation for Basic Combat Training (BCT) may be indicated to ensure injury mitigation and graduation. Basic Combat Training may subject trainees to physical rigors to which they are unaccustomed, and there is overwhelming evidence of associations between physical fitness on entering BCT and musculoskeletal injury (5,12,14,15,18,21), healthcare financial burden (30,34), lost duty time (12), and attrition (30,31,33) from BCT. Moreover, trainees from certain geographical locations (e.g., Southeast United States) may be disproportionately affected by the health burdens mentioned above and their associated impacts on injury-related lost duty and training time and attrition, thus placing a higher public health burden on military readiness and national security (5). ...
... The United States has an all-volunteer military derived from the civilian population for whom adequate PA preparation for Basic Combat Training (BCT) may be indicated to ensure injury mitigation and graduation. Basic Combat Training may subject trainees to physical rigors to which they are unaccustomed, and there is overwhelming evidence of associations between physical fitness on entering BCT and musculoskeletal injury (5,12,14,15,18,21), healthcare financial burden (30,34), lost duty time (12), and attrition (30,31,33) from BCT. Moreover, trainees from certain geographical locations (e.g., Southeast United States) may be disproportionately affected by the health burdens mentioned above and their associated impacts on injury-related lost duty and training time and attrition, thus placing a higher public health burden on military readiness and national security (5). ...
Alemany, JA, Pierce, JR, Bornstein, DB, Grier, TL, Jones, BH, and Glover, SH. Comprehensive physical activity assessment during U.S. Army Basic Combat Training. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2021-Physical activity (PA) volume, intensity, and qualitative contextual information regarding activity type and loads carried are limited during U.S. Army Basic Combat Training (BCT). The purpose of this study was to characterize daily (05:00-20:00 hours) PA during BCT using a comprehensive approach. During 2 10-week BCT cycles (n = 40 trainees per cycle), pedometers, accelerometers, and direct observation were used to estimate daily step count, PA volume, and intensity. Physical activity intensity was categorized by metabolic equivalents (METs) such as "sedentary" (1-2 METs), "light" (2-3 METs), "moderate" (3-6 METs), or "vigorous" (≥6 METs). Daily PA data were analyzed longitudinally using linear mixed models, with significance set at p ≤ 0.05. The mean daily step count was 13,459 ± 4,376 steps, and the mean daily accelerometer-assessed PA volume and intensity were as follows: sedentary: 505 ± 98 minutes, light: 190 ± 78 minutes, moderate: 168 ± 51 minutes, and vigorous: 14 ± 14 minutes, with no differences between cycles for all measures (p > 0.50). Cumulative time on feet (∼50%) and sitting (20-25%) accounted for most daily activity types during both cycles. Trainees, on average, carried between 3 and 9 kg, and ≥9 kg, for 60% and 10% of the monitored day, respectively. Basic Combat Training's physical demands are high, where trainees achieved 1.7 to 2.7 times greater daily ambulation and 6 times the recommended weekly moderate-to-vigorous PA compared with civilian counterparts and performed weight-bearing load carriage for nearly half of the day. Basic Combat Training-associated PA may increase injury risk among trainees unaccustomed to arduous PA and exercise. Implementing national PA policies to improve physical fitness and facilitate acclimatization to BCT's high physical demands could reduce public health burdens and military nonreadiness.
... Because of that high degree of risk, there is a sprawling education and training community preparing them to perform their skills and make decisions under often extreme circumstances. From recruiting to the end of the first six months, it costs an average of $58,000 to train and assess a single soldier for the U.S. Army (Niebuhr, Page, Cowan, Urban, Gubata, & Richard, 2013). This initial investment does not take into account that the military training and education community spends hundreds of hours a year on training each warfighternot just for the job in front of them, but their next job, and contingencies foreseen and unforeseen. ...
The military training and education community spends hundreds of hours a year on training warfighters not just for the job in front of them, but their next job, and contingencies foreseen and unforeseen. This training and education process requires a strong foundation of understanding Joint or Service procedures, and is dependent on each warfighter's area of specialization. There are highly technical skill-sets that can decay if unused or un-refreshed on a regular basis. Refresher training is often conducted as a standard process, untailored to each individual's unique skill-set. School age children are, in the end, no different in this learning challenge. A student's proficiency in foundational arithmetic and algebraic skills is critical for success in algebra and higher-level math courses. Building on data from previous STEM-focused learning interventions, this paper will discuss a case study for applying diagnostic measures as a way to enhance and adapt future learning, focused on application of this technique for 7th and 8th grade foundational math; it will also propose integration techniques with current military data collection concepts such as xAPI. Application of this intervention process proved that use of the intelligent tutor makes for better grades, but also helps to develop and maintain those critical building blocks in the path to success in future STEM pursuits. The framework is currently populated with math content to create an Algebra Readiness Program, whose results will be discussed, but the framework is content agnostic so it can be used to develop effective teaching tools for other subject domains for which proficiency is dependent on learning and retaining declarative knowledge. As the STEM community puts these structured interventions to use, the extrapolation of these techniques to all stages of the military learning environment is crucial.
... 4 Lowfitness trainees are also more likely to be injured, 5,6 potentially affecting their quality of life as well as causing additional medical and financial strain on military resources. 7 To address this problem, a few epidemiological (i.e., statistical) studies in the peer-reviewed literature that have identified intrinsic characteristics of trainees who fail to reach the necessary conditioning to pass the final BCT physical fitness test. Most studies appear in government technical reports which consistently have found risks that include anthropometric traits such as older age, female gender, being overweight, and high body mass index 8,9 as well as health history measures (low initial fitness 8,10-12 and prior smoking, prior injury, and sedentary activity history 9 ). ...
Objectives:
The U.S. Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) is the first step in preparing soldier trainees for the physical demands of the military. Unfortunately, a substantial number of trainees fail BCT due to failure on the final Army Physical Fitness Test (also known as the "end of cycle" APFT). Current epidemiological studies have used statistics to identify several risk factors for poor APFT performance, but these studies have had limited utility for guiding regimen design to maximize APFT outcome. This is because such studies focus on intrinsic risks to APFT failure and do not utilize detailed BCT activity data to build models which offer guidance for optimizing the training regimen to improve graduation rates.
Methods:
In this study, a phenomenological run performance model that accounts for physiological changes in fitness and fatigue due to training was applied to recruits undergoing U.S. Army BCT using high resolution (minute-by-minute) activity data.
Results:
The phenomenological model was better at predicting both the final as well as intermediate APFTs (R(2) range = 0.55-0.59) compared to linear regression models (LRMs) that used the same intrinsic input variables (R(2) range = 0.36-0.50).
Conclusions:
Unlike a statistical approach, a phenomenological model accounts for physiological changes and, therefore, has the potential to not only identify trainees at risk of failing BCT on novel training regimens, but offer guidance to regimen planners on how to change the regimen for maximizing physical performance. This paper is Part I of a 2-part series on physical training outcome predictions.
... At present, there are no formal physical fitness standards or pre-accession tests of fitness for US Army applicants. After further evaluation of the fitness test and its relationship to various adverse endpoints [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]20], including cost-effectiveness analyses, consideration may be given to requiring a demonstration of fitness prior to enlistment to reduce the risk of EHI as well as musculoskeletal injuries, stress fractures [13,14] and psychiatric disorders [16]. ...
Background:
Exertional heat illness (EHI) affects military personnel, athletes and occupational groups such as agricultural workers, despite knowledge of preventive measures.
Aims:
To evaluate EHI diagnoses during US Army basic training and its associations with fitness and body fat on entering military service.
Methods:
From February 2005 to September 2006, US Army recruits at six different military entrance stations took a pre-accession fitness test, including a 5-min step test scored as pass or fail. Subsequent EHI incidence and incidence rate ratios were analysed with reference to subjects' fitness (step test performance) and whether they met (weight qualified [WQ]) or exceeded body fat (EBF) standards.
Results:
Among the 8621 WQ and 834 EBF male subjects, there were 67 incidents of EHI within 180 days of entering military service. Among WQ subjects, step test failure was significantly associated with EHI (odds ratio [OR] 2.00, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.13, 3.53). For those passing the step test, the risk of EHI was significantly higher in EBF than in WQ subjects (OR 3.98, 95% CI 2.17, 7.29). Expected ORs for the joint effects of step test failure and EBF classification under additive and multiplicative models were 4.98 and 7.96, respectively. There were too few women to evaluate their data in detail.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrated that fitness and body fat are independently associated with incident EHI, and the effect of both was substantially higher. Those with low fitness levels and/or obesity should be evaluated further before engaging in intense physical activity, especially in warmer months.
Background
Competitive athletes train body and mind in preparation for competition with mental fortitude often providing the “winning edge.” Similarly, the current-day warfighter faces significant physical and psychological challenges and must be prepared to respond to life-threatening danger with mental and physical agility. Sport Psychology for the Soldier Athlete recognizes the soldier as an elite athlete and provides training required to perform at the highest caliber. Through this curriculum, mental skills coaching in goal setting, imagery, positive self-talk, and heart rate control is integrated into routine physical fitness training. These skills commonly used by professional and Olympic athletes for optimal performance provide soldiers with the ability to manage every day military stressors. Sport Psychology for the Soldier Athlete supports GEN Milley’s top priority of readiness and decreases the cost of Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) failures.
Procedures
Soldiers from a large military treatment facility participated in a 6-wk sport psychology mental skills training program led by an Army occupational therapist. The training that was integrated into regularly scheduled physical training consisted of 10 min of physical readiness training, 10 min of mental skills coaching followed by push-up, sit-up, and running drills focusing on the mental skills learned. Semi-annual APFT scores following the sport psychology training were compared with the five previous semi-APFT scores for the same company using analysis of variance.
Findings
Results comparing company APFT scores to the previous five semi-annual tests showed statistical significance of 0.001 with the intervention group achieving an average 13- to 14-point improvement. Post-training survey showed 91% of participants recognizing the benefit of these “life skills” in other Army tasks such as weapons qualification, combat medic tasks, and career planning. Soldiers acknowledged this curriculum as quality hands-on training with the suggestion for further development.
Discussion
A proactive approach to incorporating mental skills training into the military culture, Sport Psychology for the Soldier Athlete, is in direct alignment with The Army Human Dimension Strategy of developing mental and physical proficiency. This paradigm shift is both timely and necessary for answering readiness and resilience needs of U.S troops and provides additional tools for attaining optimal physical and mental endurance.
Objectives:
Army body composition standards are based upon validated criteria; however, certain field-expedient methodologies (e.g., weight-for-height, body mass index [BMI]) may disqualify individuals from service who may otherwise excel on physical performance and military-relevant tasks. The purpose was to assess soldier physical performance and military-specific task/fitness performance stratified by BMI.
Design:
Cross-sectional observational study.
Methods:
Male (n=275) and female (n=46) soldiers performed a wide-array of physical fitness tests and military-specific tasks, including the Army physical fitness test (APFT). Within-sex performance data were analyzed by BMI tertile stratification or by Army Body Composition Program (ABCP) weight-for-height (calculated BMI) screening standards using ANOVA/Tukey post-hoc or independent t-tests, respectively.
Results:
BMI stratification (higher vs. lower BMI) was associated with significant improvements in muscular strength and power, but also with decrements in speed/agility in male and female soldiers. Within the military specific tasks, a higher BMI was associated with an increased APFT 2-Mile Run time; however, performance on a 1600-m Loaded March or a Warrior Task and Battle Drill obstacle course was not related to BMI in either sex. Male and Female soldiers who did not meet ABCP screening standards demonstrated a slower 2-Mile Run time; however, not meeting the ABCP BMI standard only affected a minimal number (∼6%) of soldiers' ability to pass the APFT.
Conclusions:
Military body composition standards require a careful balance between physical performance, health, and military readiness. Allowances should be considered where tradeoffs exist between body composition classifications and performance on physical tasks with high military relevance.
