Military Readiness: Relationships Among Alcohol Use, Eating Habits, Exercise, and Body Mass Index

• Main Author: Khan, Joetta M
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2017
• Subjects: Health education; Military studies; Public health
• ISBN: 9780355551402; 0355551403

Major roles of the United States (US) Armed Forces include “protecting the US against adversaries, serving as a defensive wall and guaranteeing the security and independence of the nation” (Department of Defense, 2013a, p. i). To sustain these roles, service members must maintain a high level of readiness that includes a high level of physical fitness, meeting body composition standards, being medically fit, and able to deploy to combat zones. An increased understanding of the relationships between behavioral factors that may influence military readiness can be used to shape health policy, direct health resources and improve health education. This dissertation examined the relationship between alcohol use, body composition, eating habits, physical activity and military readiness (passing the fitness test, ability to deploy, medical readiness and job performance). Seven hypothesized relationships were explored: (1) greater alcohol use would be negatively correlated with military readiness, (2) greater alcohol use would be positively correlated with BMI, (3) greater alcohol use would be associated with poorer eating habits, (4) alcohol use and physical activity would be reflected by an inverted u-shaped curve, (5) BMI would mediate the relationship between alcohol use and military readiness, (6) eating habits would moderate the relationship between alcohol use and BMI, and (7) physical activity habits would moderate the relationship between BMI and military readiness. Additionally, a hypothetical model was examined using structural equation modeling regarding the hypothesized relationships and other socio-demographic and alcohol use characteristics.