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DALLAS – One might think that rigorous training and the expectation of staying healthy would mean that active Army soldiers have a healthier heart than the average civilian, but a shocking new study published by the American Heart Association reveals the opposite.
In the first such study to compare cardiovascular health between military personnel and civilians according to AHA standards, researchers found that civilians were better classified in all age groups. The authors used data from a sample of 263,430 active soldiers aged 17 to 64, as well as from a similar group of Americans who participated in the survey. National Health and Nutrition Initiative (NHANES) in 2011-2012.
"We expected that the ideal weight percentage in the Army group was much higher because of the fitness standards for entering the military and the physical aspects of the job," says the author. of the study, Loryana L. Vie, Senior Project Director. of a long-term collaboration between the US Army and the University of Pennsylvania, in a statement. "It should be noted that we have not seen the advantage we expected from the Army group, and it is clear that both groups still have a lot to do."
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The researchers evaluated each participant by classifying them in four areas: current smoking, weight, blood pressure and diabetes. These represent four of the seven health factors or behaviors that the AHA uses to identify an ideal cardiovascular health. However, the other three factors – diet score, physical activity, and total blood cholesterol – were not sufficient to evaluate Army personnel in 2012.
Once divided into four age groups, the researchers found that civilians had more individuals with ideal cardiovascular health for each sample, but these numbers were still very low. The youngest group, aged 17 to 29, showed that only 16% of civilians were ideal, compared to 10% of Army soldiers.
"The ideal measurements of weight and blood pressure were surprisingly low for both serving and civilian soldiers," says Vie. "We found that only one-third of the military and civilian groups had ideal weight."
About 20% of both groups were tobacco smokers, but overall, a greater proportion of Army members met the ideal criteria for smoking and diabetes. But the authors found that only 30% of soldiers had ideal blood pressure, compared to 55% of civilians – a strange finding since the US military excludes recruits with high blood pressure.
"It was surprising to find that Army personnel were less likely to have an ideal cardiovascular health – due in particular to high blood pressure – compared to civilians of the same age. Because recruits are selected to exclude high blood pressure and that maintaining fitness is one of the Army's priorities, we expected lower blood pressure, and not superior, "says Dr. Darwin R. Labarthe, author and professor of preventive medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.
The authors say that cardiovascular diseases affect more than anyone else the members of the military and are increasing. A study conducted in 2014 showed that nearly one in 10 (9.4%) army members had cardiovascular disease, a significant increase from the 6.8% recorded seven years earlier.
The study is published in Journal of the American Heart Association.
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