Demographic differences in body composition of Navy and Marine corps personnel: Findings from the perception of wellness and readiness assessment

With the recent increase in women's representation in the military, baselin e physical measurement data are needed to help set appropriate accession an d retention standards and to design useful prevention and intervention prog rams in the areas of physical fitness and health. This study incorporated s everal body composition indices to obtain anthropometric data for a represe ntative sample of 1,292 active duty Navy and Marine Corps women and men. It also assessed the extent to which personnel met weight-for-height and body fat standards. The prevalence of overweight was considerably lower among M arine Corps women compared with Navy women and was slightly less for Marine Corps men compared with their Navy counterparts. Between one-fifth and one -third of military personnel exceeded Navy/Marine Corps weight-for-height s tandards. Navy women tended to meet weight standards more often than Navy m en. Fewer Marine Corps women than men were overweight, but more exceeded th eir weight-for-height standards.