According to the Center's for Disease Control, the percentage of overweight Americans is 65%; comparatively, the percentage of overweight active duty military is 42%. While both of these populations rely on health promotion and disease prevention initiatives, the military as a workplace wellness setting offers unique programming and policy challenges. Given that, a recent three month weight loss program was implemented at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, MS utilizing Social Marketing concepts to effect policy change at the top brass level to support weigh loss participation efforts among those on the base. The population consists of active duty military, guard and reservists, civil service employees, contractors, and dependants. The purpose of this presentation will be to describe the implementation of the social marketing campaign to fit within military protocol, highlight the rationale of targeting commanders to provide opportunities during work hours so participants could take advantage of the program, and describe the process used, including military briefings, printed advertising, out-of-home media, and internet that ultimately led to twenty-eight teams participating. Results will provide a debriefing of the process plus outcomes of the weigh loss program.
At the end of the poster presentation the participant will be able to: -Observe social marketing in a military institution -Describe health promotion efforts unique to the military -Explore the decision-making among commanding officers in regards to participant wellness opportunities.