Obesity has been a concern for the U.S. military for over a decade, but the pandemic has seemingly worsened the situation.
New research out of the Center for Health Services Research at the Uniformed Services University in Maryland found that being overweight is currently the single biggest disqualifier for military service, affecting more than 10% of applicants.
Furthermore, almost 25% of U.S. Army service members examined in the study were obese.
“The Army and the other services need to focus on how to bring the forces back to fitness,” lead researcher Tracey Perez Koehlmoos said to AP News.
Obesity can affect soldiers’ ability to perform their duties, such as carrying heavy equipment or performing physically demanding tasks. In a combat situation, this could potentially jeopardize the safety of the soldier and their fellow service members.
Additionally, obese service members are 33% more likely to sustain musculoskeletal injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Koehlmoos’ alarming research, which is supported by previous studies, is putting the country’s military preparedness and ability into question.
“It is devastating. We have a dramatic national security problem,” said retired Marine Corps Brigadier General Stephen Cheney, commenting on the state of American troops’ fitness to AP News.
He also told the outlet, “The country has not approached obesity as the problem it really is.”
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, obesity has become a nationwide epidemic, so much so that the CDC had to revise its Body Mass Index scale to account for how fat children were getting these days.
While obesity seems to be playing a pretty big role in degrading the country’s fighting force, a Pentagon study from last year hints at a wider problem, suggesting that as much as 77% of young Americans aged 17 to 24 would not be able to enlist in the military without a waiver, Military.com reported.
Alongside obesity, drug and alcohol use and mental health issues are cited.
“To put it bluntly, I am worried we are now in the early days of a long-term threat to the all-volunteer force. [There is] a small and declining number of Americans who are eligible and interested in military service,” said U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), per the military news website.