Commander's Guide Contents
 
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR THE CIVILIAN HEALTH PROMOTION PROGRAM

In the late 1980s, the Army authorized a similar program of maximum eight weeks duration, under the premise that civilian employees, like Soldiers, are more productive when they are healthy and physically fit. However, there was little Army guidance or emphasis on health promotion at the time, and relatively few Commanders conducted the programs.

Since then, volumes of research and statistical evidence, mostly from the civilian sector, have confirmed some basic facts regarding the differences between people who have healthy lifestyles (including regular exercise) and those that do not.

  • People who devote energy to becoming and remaining healthy and physically fit are more productive in their jobs--blue collar and white collar alike--than their peers who do not.
  • They have fewer work-related accidents and injuries.
  • They get sick less often and have better work attendance records. When they do get sick, they recuperate faster and incur lower medical costs.
  • They are more enthusiastic and feel better about themselves.

As a result of this mounting evidence of the value of practicing healthy lifestyles, the corporate world in the United States and other industrialized nations began evaluating the cost versus benefit of offering health and wellness programs to their employees. The conclusion was that companies that made an investment in health promotion and wellness programs for their employees not only recouped their expenditures, but also benefited from increased production, increased employee time on-the-job, and reduced costs for medical care and compensation benefits. After a few large companies tried it and irrefutably demonstrated that it worked, the rest of the corporate world was quick to follow. Now, health promotion and wellness programs are becoming the norm, not the exception, in successful corporations.

Partially in response to this success, and for the same reasons, the Army expanded its eight-week Civilian Health Promotion Program to six months. The intent was to give civilian employees a chance to improve their fitness and health on duty time, and more importantly, to create new health habits and lifestyles that would continue after the program ended.

The expanded Civilian Health Promotion Program is a part of the Army's current focus on health promotion and wellness. The focus encompasses the entire Army Community--the Soldiers, their Family members, and the supporting civilian workforce. From a military readiness standpoint, the direct benefits of physical fitness programs to Soldiers and their Commanders are self-evident: the "facts" listed as bullets above directly relate to mission accomplishment in combat. A fit and healthy Soldier is more capable than one who is not.

Command concern for personal health and welfare also extends to military Family members. Spouses and children need to practice healthy habits and lifestyles as much as the Soldiers and civilian employees do. The Army medical community and the joint services TRICARE program are dedicating great efforts in the areas of health promotion, wellness, and preventive medicine for Family members. The resources saved by reducing clinical patient visits through these preventive measures are applied elsewhere in the medical system to ensure that continued optimum medical care and treatment will always be there for outpatients and inpatients who need them. Since Family members are part of the general community, as well, it is only natural for the program to expand into the general public. Therefore, the Civilian Health Promotion Program is now readily available for all who wish to try and promote a healthier and happier population.

In summary, the Civilian Health Promotion Program is a part of the Army's focus to improve the health, fitness, longevity, and quality of life for all people interested in health promotion, including the US Armed Forces "Family."

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US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine.