Carins Julia, Fisher Ben, Probert Bianka, Fallowfield Joanne L
Social Marketing @ Griffith, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia.
Defence Medical Services, Ministry of Defence, Staffordshire WS14 9PY, UK.
Mil Med. 2024 Nov 30. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usae522.
Improving the dietary behaviors of personnel can result in positive impact beyond the individual, creating benefits for their organization and wider society. Military personnel endure extended periods of physical and cognitive activity. Healthful dietary behaviors by military personnel support preparedness; yet poor diet behaviors remain common and persistent, and adversely impact health and physical and cognitive performance. Urgent and effective action is needed to improve diet behaviors, but this action has not been prioritized. This study aimed to estimate the value that could be realized from improved diet behaviors to support prioritization of investment in this area for policy and program change.
Value estimations (via Social Return on Investment methods) were performed to determine the potential financial benefit derived from improved diet behaviors for 2 military organizations: Australia and the UK. Estimations focused on benefits of reduced attrition and separation, improved productivity, mitigation of musculoskeletal injury (MSKI) risk, and reduced medical claims.
The value of 5 outcomes was estimated for Australia and 3 for the UK. Conservative estimates were of the order of ∼£30 million in the UK (MSKI alone) and ∼$24 million in Australia. These are not insignificant sums of money and could deliver more when invested in health and performance compared with how far they would go toward alleviating attrition, productivity losses, and MSKI.
These estimates were constructed using the best available data and transparency within the calculations, but they remain estimates. The collection of additional data would enable the calculation of further outcomes and increase the usefulness of Social Return on Investment estimation in this area. Militaries should invest greater effort and funding in achieving, maintaining, and optimizing personnel health and performance. Promoting healthy diet behaviors should be prioritized as a cost-effective preventive action that supports productivity and performance, in comparison with the costs of remediating treatment. Conceptualizing the value of improving diet behaviors in monetary terms may refocus efforts on prevention rather than treatment.
改善人员的饮食行为所产生的积极影响不仅限于个人，还能为其所在组织和更广泛的社会带来益处。军事人员要经历长时间的体力和认知活动。军事人员保持健康的饮食行为有助于做好准备；然而，不良的饮食行为仍然普遍且持续存在，并对健康以及身体和认知表现产生不利影响。需要采取紧急有效的行动来改善饮食行为，但这一行动尚未得到优先重视。本研究旨在评估改善饮食行为可能带来的价值，以支持在这一领域进行投资的优先排序，从而推动政策和项目变革。
通过社会投资回报率方法进行价值评估，以确定改善饮食行为为两个军事组织（澳大利亚和英国）带来的潜在经济收益。评估重点在于减少人员损耗和离职、提高生产力、降低肌肉骨骼损伤（MSKI）风险以及减少医疗索赔的益处。
澳大利亚评估了5项成果的价值，英国评估了3项。保守估计，英国仅MSKI一项就约为3000万英镑，澳大利亚约为2400万美元。这些金额不容小觑，与用于缓解人员损耗、生产力损失和MSKI的资金相比，投资于健康和表现时可能会带来更多收益。
这些估计是使用现有最佳数据并在计算过程中保持透明度得出的，但仍然只是估计值。收集更多数据将有助于计算更多成果，并提高社会投资回报率估计在这一领域的实用性。军队应投入更多精力和资金来实现、维持和优化人员的健康与表现。与治疗成本相比，促进健康的饮食行为应作为一项具有成本效益的预防行动予以优先考虑，因为它有助于提高生产力和表现。从货币角度对改善饮食行为的价值进行概念化，可能会将工作重点重新放在预防而非治疗上。
