Sent in by Veterans News and Information Services
By Staff Sgt. Alicia K. Borlik, USA
WASHINGTON -- Service members and spouses want better
operating hours and child care at their fitness centers,
and more organized physical activities, according to a
recent defense survey.
Gail H. McGinn, deputy assistant secretary of defense for
personnel support, families and education, said DoD polled
8,500 military members and 3,500 spouses to learn their
exercise patterns, the physical activities they enjoyed
most, the fitness facilities they used most and their
satisfaction with those facilities.
Respondents used fitness centers most, followed by swimming
pools and gymnasiums. More convenient hours topped 33
percent of military members' fitness center want lists,
while 35 percent of the spouses cited the need for child
care services. Larger facilities, more equipment, more
workout space and shorter waiting times were other frequent
responses.
"We're going to make the services aware of the child care
issues so they can come up with creative solutions." McGinn
said.
Operation Be Fit, DoD's fitness initiative, has sought for
years to improve and expand opportunities in fitness,
sports and recreation involving physical activity. "What we
didn't have was a baseline to tell us the degree to which
people are working out," McGinn said. "The survey gives us
that." She expects survey findings to help form new
recommendations for the fitness initiative.
One finding sounded worse than it is, she said. The survey
said half the military respondents were overweight by new
government guidelines that involve calculating a "body-mass
index" based on weight and height. Anyone with an index
over 25 is supposedly overweight.
McGinn emphasized 20 percent of respondents reported
indexes between 25 and 26. Slight variations could as
easily have shaved the numbers below 25, she said. "I would
not say that over 50 percent of the force is overweight
based on this particular finding," she said.
Then, too, measurements are based on people's self-reports
and, so, right off aren't necessarily accurate, she noted.
Index calculations don't consider muscle mass. "We always
hear muscle weighs more than fat, so the more muscular you
are the more you weigh," she said.
To get a clearer view of the situation, McGinn said, DoD is
reviewing its weight policy and any revisions it makes will
be based on body mass index as well as research on body
mass overall.
Developments in the fitness arena include the building of
12 new fitness centers approved in the 1999 Defense
Authorization Act, McGinn said. She's also studying the
issues of more training and certification for fitness
center staff.
American Forces Press Service
