Health-related Lifestyles In Us Active Duty Service Members

Abstract

PURPOSE: The study examined the co-occurrence of health-related behaviors among US active duty service members. The goal was to determine whether they naturally form a singular lifestyle dimension or multiple health-related lifestyles. Alcohol consumption, smoking, diet and exercise patterns, dietary supplements use, and sleep are behaviors commonly assessed to evaluate service member health and performance. However, it is currently unclear whether these behaviors naturally co-occur as a single lifestyle. METHODS: Data from the 2011 Health Related Behaviors Survey of Active Duty Military Personnel (HRBS) were used (N = 12,172). Exercise frequency, eating behaviors, use of selected health-marketed dietary supplements, drinking frequency, cigarette smoking, and average hours of sleep per night were entered into a principal components analysis with varimax rotation. RESULTS: A clear two-dimensional structure emerged. The first dimension consisted of health promoting behaviors, such as regularly exercising, eating healthy foods, and taking selected dietary supplements. This health promotion dimension predicted high soldier resiliency and positive affect. The second dimension consisted of unhealthy behaviors, including limited sleep, frequent binge drinking, and high tobacco use. The unhealthy behaviors dimension predicted uniformly negative outcomes, such as lower resiliency, higher anger, depression, anxiety, interpersonal conflict, and higher perceived stress from both military and personal sources. CONCLUSION: Health-related behaviors appear to be part of two independent lifestyles: a health promotion lifestyle and an unhealthy behaviors lifestyle. These lifestyles appeared to be largely unrelated to each other. Thus, service members could participate in just one lifestyle or both of them. Whether targeting the cluster of behaviors that form each lifestyle would have a positive impact on interventions remains to be determined.