A new study has found that throughout the course of the pandemic, America’s soldiers piled on weight, with nearly 75% of the roughly 192,000 active-duty American soldiers analyzed becoming overweight or obese during a nine-month stretch.
The report used data from the Military Health System Data Repository and was published Tuesday in the BMC Public Health journal.
The findings suggest that the army faced “significant public health and readiness concerns” because they had a large number of soldiers who had gotten heavy.
The authors of the report used the body mass index of soldiers from February 2019 to January 2020 and from September 2020 to June 2021. The report then analyzed both periods to come to its conclusion.
“Based on the results from this study and the literature, increases in BMI among Army soldiers are likely to continue unless there is intervention,” the report said.
Overall, the report says that nearly 74% of the soldiers whose data was examined in the study were found to have a BMI considered unhealthy during the time span that stretched from 2020 to 2021.
In total, that was a jump of 68% from the pre-pandemic time frame.
Among those who had obtained an unhealthy BMI, the report said that 23% were classified as obese.
Junior enlisted soldiers, who are 20 to 24, were among those who saw the largest increase in BMI changes, the report shared.
The authors of the report highlighted that to be considered fit for duty, soldiers must maintain strict body fat standards and that BMI is the most utilized tool by the army when it comes to estimating body fat.
The authors did note that the restrictions placed on troops in March 2020 to try and stop the spread of the virus likely resulted in soldiers struggling to engage in healthy behavior.
But, the report also noted that the pandemic was not the sole factor in the weight gain, as the number of soldiers considered overweight or obese was already rising before the pandemic began. It also stressed that the data cannot be used to establish what caused the soldiers to go through weight gain.
“Future research into targeted measures to prevent obesity among soldiers during future public health emergencies is needed, especially in times of lockdown and social distancing measures,” the study concluded.
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