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Supplements and Soldiers Mission Statement, Goals, and Objectives

Mission Statement:

To ensure the health of United States Army soldiers by providing education about dietary supplement use and safety. 

Program Goals:

  1. Enhance knowledge of dietary supplements within the army community.
  2. Provide resources for soldiers and commands to help assess needs and safety of dietary supplements.
  3. Foster communication between commands and soldiers about dietary supplement use.

Objectives:

  1. By the end of year 2021, program developers will increase the number of educational posts offered to soldiers on social media from 2 per week to at least 5 per week.
  2. By year two of this educational program, a majority of U. S. Army soldiers will be able to identify unsafe dietary supplements.
  3. Soldiers who participate in the program will show a decrease in adverse side-effects when using dietary supplements.

 

Our educational philosophy for this program follows the Compensatory Model where individuals are not responsible for problems, but are responsible for solutions. With this in mind, this program is supported by two theories: Social Cognitive Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior. Social Cognitive Theory supports this program because it allows for an individual’s knowledge to be directly related to social interactions. This program heavily relies on social media and communication. The Theory of Planned Behavior states behavioral intentions can be determined by 3 factors: attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Supplements and Soldiers is education focused to help change attitudes towards supplements while also providing soldiers with control over their behavior.

Supplements and Soldiers is primarily geared towards supplement education and opening up communication channels with soldiers and their commands. By providing resources that allow soldiers to educate themselves and providing a public forum with open communication, this program will be able to reach its goals.

 

Inputs Activities Outputs S-T Outcomes I-T Outcomes L-T Outcomes
Program developers set up social media channels to reach soldiers  Program team interacts with soldiers on social media at least 2x a week.  Active participation from soldiers that increases weekly with the program.  Soldiers have quick and easy access to tools and education about dietary supplements. Soldiers follow/like social media platforms to be engaged.  Social media fosters communication amongst soldiers within the Army. Soldiers communicate about risk and supplements that are not approved for use within the military.  Commands have easy and open line of communication about dietary supplement use with their soldiers. Commands have resources for their soldier who need them.
Program team finds necessary resources for education on dietary supplements Through social media channels, program team provides soldiers with necessary resources.  Soldiers utilize these resources for increased knowledge of dietary supplements. Change in soldiers knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes about dietary supplements. Decrease in risky dietary supplement use within in the Army. Less adverse side effects when using dietary supplements. Soldiers have increased daily nutritional knowledge.

Increased education of dietary supplements amongst service members.