Attitudes of New Recruits Toward a Pre-Enlistment Physical Fitness Screening Test

The Center for Accessions Research CAR requested assistance from the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine USACHPPM in determining potential changes in U.S. Army applicant behavior if a pre-enlistment physical fitness test PFT was implemented. A potential enlistee would have to pass the test before he could be inducted into the Army. The high physical demands of initial military training IMT and occupational Army tasks require a relatively high level of physical fitness 1. Previous studies have demonstrated that lower physical fitness is an independent risk factor for attrition 2,3 and injuries 4,5 in Basic Combat Training. However, the requirement to take a PFT could also deter less-fit individuals from seeking entry into the Army even though they might be able to achieve the fitness levels necessary to successfully complete IMT. The purpose of this report is to describe the attitudes of new Army enlistees toward a pre- enlistment PFT. New enlistees were asked a simple question to elicit their opinion on this issue.