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Comparison of US Army Soldiers' Health-Related Behaviors Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Julianna M Jayne¹, Renee E Cole², Bradley M Ritland¹

¹Military Nutrition Division, US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA.

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

|June 23, 2025

Abstract

Objective:

To determine if the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was associated with differences in eating behaviors, body mass index, physical activity, sleep, and perceived stress among US Army soldiers.

Methods:

Retrospective cohort study using data from Army installations in 8 different states. Data were grouped by study year into a pre-COVID-19 era cohort (2017-2019; n = 1,591) or COVID-19 era cohort (2020-2022, n = 918) and analyzed using multivariate linear regression.

Results:

The COVID-19 era cohort reported lower mean healthy eating scores, fewer meals but more snacks eaten per week, higher access to food, more emotional eating, higher perceived stress, higher body mass index, and less physical activity than the pre-COVID-19 era cohort (P ≤ 0.05).

Conclusions And Implications:

Soldiers in the COVID-19 era cohort reported less healthy eating behaviors and health-related behaviors compared with the pre-COVID-19 era cohort. Further investigation is warranted on the potential cumulative effects and whether health-related behaviors improved after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted.

Keywords:

eating behaviors emotional eating military pandemic physical activity

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