Abstract
Military service is inherently demanding and, due to the nature of these demands, the term “tactical athlete” has been coined to capture the physical requirements of the profession. Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets are a unique subset of the military service community, and the complexity of their training and educational pursuits increases their susceptibility to unhealthy eating patterns. The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the relationship between the perceived barriers to healthy eating, food insecurity, sports nutrition knowledge, and dietary patterns among Army ROTC cadets. The usual dietary intake was gathered from (N = 37) cadets using the General Nutrition Assessment Food Frequency Questionnaire. The perceived barriers to healthy eating were measured using a set of scales consisting of social barriers (6 items, α = 0.86), access barriers (2 items, α = 0.95), and personal barriers (2 items, α = 0.67), with higher-scale scores indicating greater perceived barriers. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to measure the association between the energy-adjusted dietary intakes and the scores on the barriers scales. Energy-adjusted intakes of calcium (ρ = −0.47, p ≤ 0.01), fiber (ρ = −0.35, p = 0.03), vitamin A (ρ = −0.46, p ≤ 0.01), vitamin C (ρ = −0.43, p ≤ 0.01), fruit (ρ = −0.34, p = 0.04), and vegetables (ρ = −0.50, p ≤ 0.01) were negatively correlated with the perceived personal barrier scores. The energy-adjusted intakes of fiber (ρ = −0.36, p = 0.03), vitamin C (ρ = −0.37, p = 0.03), and vitamin E (ρ = −0.45, p ≤.01) were negatively correlated with perceived social barriers, while energy-adjusted vitamin C intake was negatively correlated with perceived access barriers (ρ = −0.40, p = 0.01). Although additional research is needed to better understand the dietary patterns of ROTC cadets, among the participants in this study, greater perceived personal, social, and access barriers were associated with less nutrient-dense eating patterns. Interventions aimed at addressing such barriers may prove beneficial for the improvement of diet quality among ROTC cadets.
Highlights
The modern soldier is expected to be stronger, faster, and more adaptable than ever before
Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets are a unique subset of the military service community, and the complexity of their training and educational pursuits increases their susceptibility to unhealthy eating patterns
A cross-sectional design was used to explore the relationship between potential obstacles to healthy eating and dietary patterns among Army ROTC cadets attending a land-grant university in the Midwest region of the U.S The recruitment of study participants began in February 2021, with researchers visiting ROTC classes
Summary
The modern soldier is expected to be stronger, faster, and more adaptable than ever before. Given the inherently demanding nature of military service, the term “tactical athlete” has been coined to capture the physical requirements of the profession [1]. Physical performance is a multifaceted outcome, the revisions to Field Manual (FM) 7–22: Holistic Health and Fitness, formerly named “Army Physical Readiness Training”, recognize nutrition as one of the five essential pillars of wellbeing that the Department of Defense (DOD) “deems essential to military mission success” [2]. Among military tactical athletes (i.e., Special Forces Assessment and Selection candidates), higher diet quality has been shown to be associated with better physical performance [3]. Higher diet quality has been shown to be associated with greater psychological resilience among military recruits [4]
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