Progress toward attainment of the Healthy People 2000 objectives in the U.S. Army: measured by health risk appraisal results.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Healthy People 2000 (HP2000) is a national agenda of health promotion and disease prevention objectives, with specific health behavior goals in 22 priority areas. The U.S. Army Health Risk Appraisal (HRA) is a self-administered health-habits survey, inquiring about tobacco and alcohol use, physical activity, nutrition, and safety-related practices, given to more than 400,000 active-duty U.S. Army soldiers in the 1990s. This article compares the health behaviors of U.S. Army soldiers, as measured by the HRA, with the HP2000 objectives. METHODS: We compared cross-sectional analyses of self-reported health behaviors of active-duty Army personnel responding to HRA questionnaires in 1991 (n=78,256) and in 1997-1998 (n=59,771) with corresponding HP2000 objectives. We also calculated longitudinal changes for personnel who took more than one HRA (n=86,393). RESULTS: By 1997-1998, the Army exceeded HP2000 physical fitness goals by at least 50% and also exceeded goals for eating high-fiber foods and using bicycle helmets. The Army did not meet goals for nutrition, tobacco use, and seat-belt use. CONCLUSIONS: The Army has made good progress toward the HP2000 goals. However, improvement is needed to meet the tobacco, nutrition, and safety goals.