Nearly 27 percent of soldiers in the U.S. Army who were at a healthy weight prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were considered overweight during the pandemic, according to a study by the Center for Health Services Research at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland.
In addition, the number of soldiers classified as obese based on body mass index (BMI) in 2017 was 17.3 percent, but that percentage grew to 23 percent in 2021. Nearly 16 percent of those in the Army who were classified as overweight prior to the pandemic were classified as obese during the pandemic.
Of those classified as obese, increases occurred across every demographic category, but women, Whites, younger soldiers and lower-ranking soldiers were the most affected. Prior to the pandemic, 18.2 percent of the group was obese, but that number grew by nearly 10,000 soldiers, which equates to an overall 5 percent growth in obesity during the study period.
The study used data from the Military Health System Data Repository to determine the BMI for all active-duty Army soldiers between February 2019 and January 2020 and compare it to their BMI between September 2020 and June 2021. Any soldiers whose medical records were not available for both periods or who were pregnant during one of the periods or had been pregnant one year prior to each time period, were excluded. In total, the BMIs of 191,894 soldiers were compared.
The goal of the study was to see how the regulations put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic to limit movement and restrict regular military activities had impacted the BMI of soldiers.
More than 10 percent of people between the ages of 17 to 24 were disqualified from joining the Army in fiscal year 2022 due to being overweight. Last year, the Army missed its recruiting goal by 25 percent (equating to 15,000 recruits), the first time the Army did not meet its goal, according to an article by the AP News.
Overweight and obesity rates also increased in the U.S. Navy and the Marines, according to the article.
Retired Marine Corps Brigadier General Stephen Cheney co-authored a report on the problem and participated in a webinar on the topic put on in November by nonprofit think tank American Security project. During that webinar, he said that the numbers have not gotten any better since the pandemic has waned but instead are getting worse.