**1. Introduction**

Epidemiological data indicate that overweight and obesity are two of the main public health problems. They affect all age groups and countries all over the world regardless of their developmental stage [1–4]. According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased dramatically in the general population over the past decades. Now, 39% of adults worldwide are overweight and 13% are obese ([5] (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-andoverweight, accessed on 27 August 2021)).

It is now widely accepted that occupational factors may play an important role in the occurrence of excessive body weight [6,7]. Military personnel, as an occupational group, are more exposed to stress, harmful environmental factors and limitations in food selection or availability, especially during military exercises or military missions [8,9].

Studies have shown an alarmingly high prevalence of excessive body weight among soldiers all over the world. Soldiers fulfilling the criteria of obesity constitute 8% in the US Army [10], 12% in the British Army [11], 13% in the Iranian Army [12,13] and 6% in the Polish Air Force [14]. A higher percentage of soldiers with excessive body weight was found in the Saudi Arabian Army, where obesity was diagnosed in 44% of soldiers [15].

**Citation:** Ga ´zdzi ´nska, A.; Jagielski, P.; Turczy ´nska, M.; Dziuda, Ł.; Ga ´zdzi ´nski, S. Assessment of Risk Factors for Development of Overweight and Obesity among Soldiers of Polish Armed Forces Participating in the National Health Programme 2016–2020. *IJERPH* **2022**, *19*, 3069. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph19053069

Academic Editor: Paul B. Tchounwou

Received: 21 January 2022 Accepted: 3 March 2022 Published: 5 March 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

Alarmingly high percentages of overweight and obese Polish soldiers, 58% and 27%, respectively, in those over 50 years of age were reported by Gielerak et al. in the implementation of the MIL-SCORE (Equalization of Accessibility to Cardiology Prophylaxis and Care for Professional Soldiers) program, which aimed to assess the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in a population of 6440 Polish soldiers [16]. According to the authors of the program, the professional staff of the Polish Army, due to the specific conditions of performing their tasks, seems to be particularly exposed to risk factors for adverse cardiovascular events. The results of the MIL-SCORE program showed the occurrence of hypertension in 45% of soldiers and lipid disorders in more than half of the participants. Coronary heart disease was diagnosed in 3% of Polish soldiers over 50 years of age and <1% of younger soldiers. Diabetes affected 7% of the oldest soldiers and 3% of soldiers aged 40–50 years. In the age subgroup > 50 years, high and very high results of cardiovascular risk assessment were observed in almost one-third of soldiers [16]. The results of the MIL-SCORE program indicate that Polish soldiers have multiple cardiovascular risk factors, including obesity, which reflect trends observed in the general population. This confirms the trends observed in earlier studies [17].

The above studies on obesity among military personnel most often evaluated sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, marital status, military rank and employment. Only one of these studies evaluated the effects of fitness and physical activity on body weight [13]. Risk factors contributing to the obesity epidemic are of interest to many researchers worldwide. In particular, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) identifies economic, social and physical factors that have changed dynamically over the past 20–30 years and have influenced diets and levels of physical activity at work, at home and leisure time [18]. Other researchers have placed emphasis on lifestyle factors [19], including particular attention to the impact of stress on weight gain [20,21].

In the present work, as compared to previous studies on military personnel, we propose considering the simultaneous influence of a much larger number of environmental and behavioral factors on the prevalence of obesity among Polish soldiers. These factors include time spent in front of the television [22,23], time spent in front of the computer [24], time spent sleeping [25], dietary factors (e.g., snacking, consumption of fast food and sweets) [26], family history of obesity [22], leisure time activities [27] and the effects of mood and stress on eating behavior [28].

To our knowledge, despite the constantly deteriorating nutritional status among soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces, no one has undertaken an investigation of the risk factors for overweight and obesity in this professional group so far. In addition to assessing the most important risk factors for the development of overweight and obesity among soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces, the aim of our work was to propose a model of the probability of obesity based on risk factors. Achieving these objectives will help design more effective obesity prevention programs for these soldiers.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**
