Cardiovascular risk factors and their influence on the physical fitness of young adults: an assessment among regular and professional soldiers in Germany

Background and aims: The physical, mental and cognitive demands for military servicemen and -women have increased over the last decades. On the other side, modern society has become a service society with low physical activity during daily life. Consequently, knowledge about effects of this unfavorable lifestyle for physical fitness is of high concern. Patients and methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done that included 1570 active soldiers (95.3% men; mean age 23.82.7 years). Number of cardiovascular risk factors, their influence on physical fitness and reasons for non-fitness for a soldier career were recorded methodically. Results: 54.8% of the examined soldiers were active smokers, 51.1% were overweight or obese and 22.6% had a positive family history of cardiovascular diseases. Lipometabolic disorder was lower (14.9 and 21.2%, respectively) and apparent diseases were rarely or not detectable. Physical fitness on a bicycle ergometer decreased with increasing number of cardiovascular risk factors. Overweight and hypercholesterolemia were the risk factors with the greatest effect on this reduction. The most frequent reasons for non-fitness for duty were overweight, nutritive-toxic liver diseases and low physical fitness. Conclusion: The reduction of physical fitness due to the increasing number of cardiovascular risk factors is a serious problem, particularly because it happens in absence of manifest chronic diseases.