Investigation on knowledge of commanders and managers of one of the Military forces about the nutrition of military personnel in 1384

Introduction.The subject of nutrition and its quality in armed Personnel is affected by many different factors. Knowledge & attitudes of necessity and importance of Nutrition by commanders in different administration Levels is one of those factors. Importance of nutrition in physical and mental health and its influence on efficacy of armed Personnel, make it more vital to the commanders. This point is very important that nutritional status of Personnel influences their activities and practices. Commanders’ knowledge of nutritional system has many influences on nutrition habits & nutritional behavior of soldiers. For instances, practical ration usually don’t have such sense quality and soldiers don’t like them. But, it is proved that, well-educated commanders can provide a very nice and positive attitudes toward those ration in official personnel both officers and soldiers. This role is supposed to be created in all commanders, even in small groups. This will even enable them to educate other officers & soldiers regarding water & energy. This means that the commanders pay attention to correct use of food & water as well as military practices & exercises. Many other researches conducted studies on knowledge & attitudes toward nutritional status of soldiers in other countries. Conducting these kinds of researches is important in our country too especially in armed forces. Results of these investigations can improve the nutritional conditions of armed forces.Materials and Methods. This is a descriptive study done through a cross-sectional method. Data has been collected through interview & questionnaires. The sample size was 277 and study population consisted of commanders was managers of the forces. The collected data was analyzed using Spss software.Results. Based on the results, 72% of the subjects has more than20 years work history.62% of the study population, the commanders, had good & excellent nutritional knowledge. With regard to formal education, more than 48% were well- educated, bachelor & higher degrees.Newspaper and journals (70.7%), planned courses (61%), mass- media (49.6%), healthy related pamphlets (47.6%) respectively, were information resources, reported by the study population.Conclusions. In general, knowledge level regarding the issue was reported excellent (8%), good (54%), moderate (36%) and weak (2%).Due to importance of education, it is recommended that health planners provide educational programs regarding nutrition for those commanders with moderate (36%) and weak (2%) levels of knowledge. These include generally, 38 percent of the subjects in one of the forces.