WED-019 - Job Stress and Fitness Levels of Army Reserve Medical Support Staff

Brief Abstract Summary: Consider how US Army Reservists are challenged to balance family, civilian jobs, and military commitments. These stressors may affect their physical fitness preparation – a threat to military readiness. Although these men and women need to be ready to deploy when needed, they fail their fitness tests at rates higher than their active-duty counterparts. A small group of Reservists were evaluated on their civilian and military job stress, and results compared to their physical fitness levels. Participants rated almost all individual stressors as experienced at lower levels in their military jobs than in their civilian jobs. When civilian and military job stress levels were compared to their physical fitness levels, military stress level was found to be significantly negatively associated with fitness level. With moderately high stress levels found in current study participants, training officers should offer additional stress management and mental health interventions.

Detailed abstract description: Consider how US Army Reservists are challenged to balance family, civilian jobs, and military commitments. These stressors may affect their physical fitness preparation – a threat to US military readiness. Reservists in medical units experience deployment and non-deployment military stressors as well as stressors related to their civilian healthcare provider occupations. Although these men and women need to be ready to deploy when needed, they fail their fitness tests at rates higher than their active-duty counterparts. Because high stress levels may lead to poorer fitness test scores, the purpose of this study was to explore any association between perceived civilian and Reserve job stress and physical fitness in a medical unit of US Army Reservists, an understudied group. In this exploratory study, a small group of Reservists were evaluated on their civilian and military job stress, and results were compared to their physical fitness levels. Participants rated almost all individual stressors as experienced at lower levels in their military jobs than in their civilian jobs. When participant civilian and military job stress levels were compared to their physical fitness levels, military stress level was found to be significantly negatively associated with fitness level. With moderately high stress levels found in current study participants, training officers may wish to offer additional stress management, mental health, and coping skills programs. If results are confirmed in larger studies, assessment of job stressors as possible barriers to exercise and stress management interventions are recommended to possibly improve fitness levels.