Physical Activity and National Security [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Dr. Dan Bornstein
Dr. Bornstein is Founding Principal of DBornsteinSolutions, LLC.
He is also the Military Sector Chair of the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan.
[1:14] Connecting physical activity and military readiness
“The more direct association is the fact that we've got a major recruiting problem in this country, in the fact that generally between 70 and 75% of age-eligible Americans do not meet the minimum qualifications for service in our military. There are a number of reasons for that—they could have a criminal background, they may not have completed high school—but increasingly, the reasons that they're unable or ineligible for service are, frankly, they're either too fat or too unfit.”
[3:44] Evolution of physical inactivity as a national security issue
“So it is really time for us to think and act—we've done enough thinking, it's time for us to act—on the environments in which we live and work and play and commute and go to school and pray and so on. Such that those environments make the healthy choice the easy choice, the choice to be physically active, the choice to eat more healthful foods is a much easier choice to make.”
[7:52] Framing physical inactivity as a national security issue
“What is the secondhand smoke of sitting or physical inactivity? I would argue it's national security. And so if we don't do these things to increase the physical activity across our population, we really do put ourselves at risk of being less safe and secure. So individual behavior can impact the masses in this case. And so framing physical inactivity as a national security issue, hopefully will generate more interest for more people to do more things to allow more people to become and stay more physically active on a regular basis.”
[13:08] Return on investment of physical activity
“So I think in terms of return on investment as it relates to military readiness, there are some very much more proximal outcomes when we talked earlier about musculoskeletal injuries that are occurring in basic training. Well, we can see a pretty rapid return on investment by reducing the incidence of some of those musculoskeletal injuries. We can see reductions in the incidence of some of these mental health outcomes that are plaguing our service members, our veterans and our culture as a whole.”
[19:14] Strategies to address physical inactivity as a national security issue
“So getting federal agencies and other entities at even state and local levels to break down those silos and to convene and talk about how physical activity is impacting them and their organizations and/or how they impact physical activity is a pretty wonderful place to start. And if we begin doing that, I believe that we will identify lots of operational efficiencies that also create wins in multiple silos, stovepipes, domains, and that we will do much better as a country if we start again, breaking down those silos, building bridges, and implementing solutions that are already there, but might need multiple different organizations or partnerships or collaborations to actually get them successfully implemented.”
[22:42] Knowing what is important to the audience
“When there is a logical connection to be made, I think it is incumbent upon the physical activity and health professional to make that connection through evidence, through stories, through whatever means we have at our disposal to demonstrate to individuals that we're talking with, that we can make a meaningful impact on the outcomes that are most relevant to them. And with a proper investment, we can show a return on that investment that they can genuinely appreciate.”
[26:19] Physical activity as a household and community issue
“So it's a win-win, whether you want to look at it as a public health issue or a national security issue. By investing in prevention, by allowing more people to be more physically active, by creating environments especially social environments, through their families and through their communities, we have that opportunity to provide short and long term return on investment that will pay for itself in droves in meaningful ways, forever.”
[30:07] Call to action
“So I would dive in, and I would say, find the three recommendations in the National Physical Activity Plan that you think you can get the greatest traction on, and then go work to try to implement those recommendations. Because they're evidence based, the evidence is there, the roadmap is there, we just need to get on the road.”
