XXXX among overweight army trainees: incidence and health care utilization.

@entity1 @entity85 @entity7184 @entity28
BACKGROUND: @entity85 are a major cause of morbidity in military training. They are more common among overweight/ @entity28 individuals, and the prevalence of overweight/ @entity28 in the military has increased. During strong economic periods, the military can be challenged to recruit enough qualified personnel, and physical standards are sometimes relaxed. AIMS: This study was conducted to compare the incidence of and outpatient utilization for training-related @entity7184 among @entity1 who were over body fat (OBF) standards compared with those who were weight qualified (WQ). METHODS: All study subjects were @entity1 >= 18 years old, who were classified as OBF or WQ and were followed for 90 days. During this period, everyone entering through the study sites was required to take a physical fitness test (5 min step test). Only individuals passing the fitness test were included in these analyses. RESULTS: There were 812 OBF and 6511 WQ study @entity1 . OBF were 47% more likely to experience a @entity85 and had 49% higher health care utilization. Other significant factors included age >19 and a history of smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Among this population who had passed a fitness test, those who were OBF had a substantially higher risk of injury and higher utilization for these injuries. Because the recruiting environment is much better, military entrance standards have been tightened, but should the economy improve substantially the military may again be challenged to recruit adequate numbers of personnel, and the lessons learned in this project may prove valuable.
