Association between Physical Fitness and Discharge and Recycling Risk among Male Army Recruits

To examine the relationship between entry-level physical fitness and discharge and recycle incidence among men in BCT. Resident Individual Training Management System (RITMS) was queried for all male basic trainees beginning training between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010. There were 99,700 male recruits in the database and 54,630 had entry-level Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) scores. The APFT consisted of a 2-minute maximal effort push-up (PU) event, a 2-minute maximal effort sit-up (SU) event and a 2-mile run for time (RUN). Men were at higher discharge risk if they had lower performance on PUs (RR[Q4/Q1]=4.5, 95% CI=3.7-5.4), SUs (RR[Q4/Q1] = 3.15, 95% CI= 2.66-3.74), or a RUN (RR[Q4/Q1] = 2.39, 95% CI= 2.04-2.80) Men were also at higher recycle risk if they had low performance on PUs (RR[Q4/Q1]=4.06, 95% CI=3.29-3.33), SUs (RR[Q4/Q1]= 3.52, 95% 0=2.84-4.37) or the RUN (RR[Q4/Q1] = 2.73, 95% CI = 2.23-3.33).