Physically fit Army recruits are getting harder to find, according to a public health report that highlights how increased rates of obesity, physical inactivity, and chronic disease may pose a threat to U.S. military readiness and national security.
The lack of activity and obesity increases the risk of injury among soldiers in basic training and, according to The Reno Gazette-Journal, the government loses $31,000 for every recruit ruled out by attrition.
“This has a real impact on national security,” said Daniel Bornstein, a researcher who led the study, per USA Today.
Recruits who entered the army between 2010 and 2013 were included in the study and aspects such as their initial physical tests and injury rates after reaching basic training were analyzed.
What researchers found was that the problem of finding physically fit recruits was acute in the South, which is where the army happens to draws a large percentage of its soldiers from, The Reno Gazette-Journal said.
The highest rates of recruits who became injured during basic training came from eleven states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
What this suggests is that government policy could have a profound influence over fitness- something which the South is falling short in.
“Some of the greatest public health achievements have come as the result of state-level policy change,” the study noted, according to The Reno Gazette-Journal.
The rate of obesity and physical inactivity is something that has plagued the army for years.
A report published by The New York Times in 2010 noted that excess weight was the largest contributing factor in the army rejecting potential recruits.
The proportion of potential recruits who failed their physicals each year because they were overweight rose by nearly 70 percent between 1995 and 2008, the report noted.
One way this growing epidemic could be combatted is through public involvement.
“We are not making the changes we need to weave physical activity back into our culture,” Bornstein said, according to the USA today, suggesting that physical education be bought back into schools and that infrastructures be improved as a way of encouraging physical activity within communities.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.