The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of physical and sedentary activity normal-weight and at-risk-for/overweight boys perform when alone, with a peer of similar weight and with a peer of different weight. Participants included boys, ages 8-12 years, classified as either normal-weight (<85th BMI percentile; N = 12) or at-risk-for/overweight (<85th BMI percentile; N = 12). At-risk-for/ overweight boys allocated a greater amount of time to sedentary activities and accumulated fewer accelerometer counts than normal-weight boys in the alone condition. Once paired with a peer of either similar or different weight there were no differences between groups. These results indicate the presence of an unknown peer has a positive effect on at-risk-for/overweight children's physical activity behavior.
Diet quality and nutrition status are important for optimal health and military performance. Few studies have simultaneously evaluated diet quality and biochemical markers of nutritional status of military service members. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) can be used to assess dietary quality and adherence to federal nutrition guidelines. The aim of this study was to assess soldiers’ diet quality and nutritional status and compare results to a civilian control group. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 531 soldiers. A food frequency questionnaire was used to calculate HEI scores. A blood sample was collected for analysis of select nutrition biochemical markers. Non-parametric analyses were conducted to compare the diet quality and nutritional status of soldiers and controls. Differences in non-normally distributed variables were determined by using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: Soldiers had an HEI score of 59.9 out of 100, marginally higher than the control group (55.4). Biochemical markers of interest were within normal reference values for soldiers, except for the omega-3 index and vitamin D. Conclusions: This study identified dietary components that need improvement and deficits in biochemical markers among soldiers. Improving diet quality and nutritional status should lead to better health, performance, and readiness of the force.
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