Low physical fitness is a strong predictor of health problems among young men: a follow-up study of 1411 male conscripts

Abstract

BackgroundMilitary service in Finland is compulsory for male citizens and annually about 90% of 19-year-old men enter into the service. Approximately 15% of them are discharged due to medical reasons constituting a group of young men who are at risk of being marginalised in society. The purpose of the study was to evaluate predictive associations between medical discharge from the compulsory military service and various intrinsic risk factors, including socio-economic, health, health behavior, and physical fitness outcomes.MethodsWe followed four successive cohorts of conscripts who formed a representative sample of Finnish young men (18-28 years old, median age 19 yrs) for 6 months. To exclude injuries and illnesses originating before the onset of service, conscripts discharged from the service at the medical screenings during the 2-week run-in period were excluded from the analyses. Data regarding medical discharge were charted from computerised patient records. Predictive associations between medical discharge and intrinsic risk factors were examined using multivariate Cox's proportional hazard models.ResultsOf 1411 participants, 9.4% (n = 133) were discharged prematurely for medical reasons, mainly musculoskeletal (44%, n = 59) and mental and behavioral (29%, n = 39) disorders. Low levels of physical fitness assessed with a 12-min running test (hazard ratio [HR] 3.3; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.7-6.4), poor school success (HR 4.6; 95% CI: 2.0-11.0), poor self-assessed health (HR 2.8; 95% CI: 1.6-5.2), and not belonging to a sports club (HR 4.9; 95% CI: 1.2-11.6) were most strongly associated with medical discharge in a graded manner. The present results highlight the need for an improved pre-enlistment examination and provide a new means of identifying young persons with a high risk for discharge.ConclusionsThe majority of the observed risk factors are modifiable. Thus preventive measures and programs could be implemented. The findings suggest that increasing both aerobic and muscular fitness is a desirable goal in a pre-training program before entering military service. Attention to appropriate waist circumference and strategies addressing psychological well-being may strengthen the preventive program. Optimally the effectiveness of these programs should be tested in randomized controlled intervention studies.

Prediction of Injuries and Injury Types in Army Basic Training, Infantry, Armor, and Cavalry Trainees Using a Common Fitness Screen

“…[25][26][27][28] Low fitness levels and higher MSI rates are known to be associated. 4,24,29 The decreased level of fitness of the incoming recruit mimics the decreased fitness and increased obesity evident in our population as a whole. The challenge is to find a way to identify those recruits who are likely to become injured and develop a physical training program that improves fitness without resulting in MSI.…”

“…Numerous screening methods are being investigated as ways to reduce the number of MSIs across the force. [28][29][30][31] These often require specially trained individuals to conduct the screenings and analyze the results, specialized equipment, and extensive person-hours and time lost from training. If an assessment that is already being conducted could provide predictive MSI information without additional people, training, equipment, or time lost, we could begin to immediately use these data to develop MSI prevention programs.…”

Knee problems and its associated factors among active cyclists in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

“…This may be explained by the low fitness level and high BMI of this group of cyclists as suggested by Taanila et al . [242526]…”

Adapted Marching Distances and Physical Training Decrease Recruits' Injuries and Attrition

“…6 The factors that have been identified as responsible for higher injury rates are age, female gender, Caucasian race, married marital status, lower educational level, high or low body mass index (BMI), low level of previous or current physical activity (PA), low aerobic fitness or muscle endurance, previous injuries, smoking, high weekly running mileage, and high amount of weekly exer cise.7-4 The factors that have been identified as responsible for higher attrition rates are age, lower educational level, low income, poor health status, low and high BMI, low PA, low physical fitness, previous and acute injuries, smoking, and not belonging to a sports club or gym.1 (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) Many intervention studies have shown that a reduced weekly running mileage decreased the physical load on recruits, but did not decrease their physical fitness. The injury rates decreased significantly because of these interven tions.3'13' 14 Additionally, endurance training performed in ability groups has a high potential for optimizing individual training stimulus and reduces injury risk as well.4,15 Interval trainings, instead of conventional long endurance runs, can have a positive effect on injury prevention during basic mili tary training (BMT).…”