Overview
The Military Health and Nutrition Examination Study (MHANES) is a Department of Defense funded study conducted by Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. This cross-sectional study will assess, in a large, diverse sample of Army Service Members (n=600), food and supplement intake, cardiovascular health, body composition, biomarkers of nutritional status, measures of health status, injury prevalence, mental wellbeing, gut microbiome composition, and physical performance outcomes. The proposed study is modeled after the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and customized for the Army population.
Description
Background: Comprehensive scientific data on dietary intake, nutritional status, cardiometabolic health, and performance of a representative sample of active-duty Soldiers are not available. Collecting such data will allow for assessment of disease prevalence and health status, provide novel descriptive information, and examine relationships between health and nutrition variables that are currently unavailable on the Army active-duty population.
Study Aim: To assess, in a large, diverse sample of Army Service Members, dietary intake, nutritional status, cardiovascular health, body composition, metabolic biomarkers of nutritional state, and other measures of health status.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- U.S. Army Soldiers ≥ 18 years old
- Willing to have biological samples stored for future use
- Willing to have data linked to the Soldier Performance, Health, and Readiness (SPHERE) database
Exclusion Criteria:
- Soldiers under the age of 18 years
- Soldiers with an inability to understand verbal or written instructions or testing materials in English
- Soldiers relocating or getting out of the Army in the next 30 days
- Pregnant females
- Soldiers currently in Basic Training (BCT) and/or One-Station Unit Training (OSUT)