Nutrition Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors of Israeli Female Combat Recruits Participating in a Nutrition Education Program

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of a pilot nutrition intervention program on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of female combat soldiers in basic training serving in the Israeli army and to determine changes in nutrient intake. Seventy recruits participated in the intervention. Anthropometric measurements and food frequency questionnaires were completed at 3 time points: at enlistment, at 2 months, and at 4 months. Additional questionnaires to assess nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors were administered preintervention and postintervention. Baseline results indicated that intakes of calcium, vitamin E, and vitamin D were below recommended levels. After 2 months (8 weeks), suboptimal consumption of many nutrients was observed. At this time point, a nutrition education program was initiated and activities were carried out for the final 2 months of basic training. Following completion of the intervention, a marked improvement in nutrient intake was reported, accompanied by significant changes in attitudes toward healthy eating and increased nutrition knowledge. One-year follow-up evaluation indicated that approximately 20% of participants had made long-term dietary changes. In conclusion, nutrition education increased knowledge, modified attitudes, and led to dietary changes in female recruits. Programs of this type should be considered for implementation in the military.

Dietary Assessment Methods in Military and Veteran Populations: A Scoping Review

“…There was one (1%) of each study design for longitudinal cohort [21], validation study [71], cohort study [88], and retrospective cross-sectional study [29]. Twenty-one of the studies were interventions including eight (9%) randomised control trials [7,36,39,51,53,89,94,103], four (4%) pre-post design studies [21,48,49,62], three (3%) non-randomised control trials [40,84,86], two (2%) case-control trials [65,104], and two (2%) non-controlled trial [32,56]. There was one (1%) of each study design for retrospective case-control trial [38] and randomised trial [54].…”

“…The remaining studies were carried out in Europe including Belgium (n = 6, 7%) [22,[70][71][72][73], Finland (n = 3, 3%) [21,34], the United Kingdom (n = 3, 3%) [28,45,48], Norway (n = 3, 3%) [62,94,96], Italy (n = 1, 1%) [31], Greece [23], and France (n = 1, 1%) [50]. Asia included studies in Israel (n = 4, 4%) [2,47,56,81], Iran (n = 2, 2%) [76,90] Malaysia (n = 1, 1%) [57], and Japan (n = 1, 1%) [61]. Two studies were undertaken in Australia (2%) [44,96].…”

“…One study did not report on participant numbers [45]. Forty-five of the 89 studies included male personnel (51%) [ The military population most frequently studied, in descending order, was the army with n = 48 (54%) [2,6,7,[21][22][23][24][29][30][31][32]34,35,[37][38][39][40][43][44][45][46][47][48][50][51][52][53][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]66,[70][71][72][73]76,77,82,84,88,89], followed by veterans n = 18 (20%) [20,[90][91]…”

“…There were 15 (17%) [7,21,32,36,38,39,49,51,53,54,56,84,89,103] intervention studies of which five included a follow-up component [56,84,86,89,103] ranging from 10 weeks to one year. The population types that included intervention studies were army (n = 9) [7,21,32,38,51,53,56,84,89], air force (n = 3) [36,49,54], veterans (n = 1) [103], National Guard (n = 1) [86], and Navy Marines (n = 1) [39]. The most commonly studied type of military personnel in included studies were soldiers (n = 28, 31%) [6,7,22,24,29,32,35,37,38,45,46,48,50,51,...…”

“…The population types that included intervention studies were army (n = 9) [7,21,32,38,51,53,56,84,89], air force (n = 3) [36,49,54], veterans (n = 1) [103], National Guard (n = 1) [86], and Navy Marines (n = 1) [39]. The most commonly studied type of military personnel in included studies were soldiers (n = 28, 31%) [6,7,22,24,29,32,35,37,38,45,46,48,50,51,53,56,57,59,62,[70][71][72][73][74]76,88] followed by veterans (n = 14, 16%) [20,[94][95][96][97][98][99][100]…”