Suchergebnisse

OBJECTIVES: US Army reserve soldiers and active-duty soldiers differ in their daily work demands and supporting resources, yet research on reservists' health and fitness is lacking. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine whether physical test failure rates and health behaviors differed between active-duty soldiers and reserve soldiers and (2) establish which demographic and health behavioral factors were associated with failing physical tests. METHODS: We analyzed a sample of 239 329 US Army active-duty and reserve soldiers surveyed from September 2013 through March 2015 using the Global Assessment Tool. We extracted data on soldier demographic characteristics and health behaviors, as well as Body Composition Test (BCT) and Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) results. We compared the 2 groups using the active-to-reserve adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for each variable. We used logistic regression models to determine which variables were associated with failing these tests. RESULTS: The odds of failing the BCT (aOR = 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-0.78) or the APFT (aOR = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.30-0.32) were lower among active-duty soldiers than among reservists, and the odds of doing high levels of high-intensity interval training (aOR = 1.47; 95% CI, 1.42-1.51), resistance training (aOR = 1.45; 95% CI, 1.42-1.48), and vigorous physical activity (aOR = 2.92; 95% CI, 2.86-2.98) were higher among active-duty soldiers than among reservists. The odds of using tobacco (aOR = 1.37; 95% CI, 1.35-1.40), binge drinking alcohol (aOR = 1.11; 95% CI, 1.09-1.13), having insomnia (aOR = 1.46; 95% CI, 1.43-1.48) or mild depression (aOR = 1.50; 95% CI, 1.48-1.53), and sustaining a physical activity–related injury (aOR = 2.52; 95% CI, 2.47-2.57) were higher among active-duty soldiers than among reservists. CONCLUSIONS: Policy makers and military leaders could use this information to implement health screenings and tailor health-promotion, intervention, and treatment programs.

AbstractThe consumer literature on branding to date coalesces around the notion that brands are constantly contested. Brand contestation arises where the actions of consumer brand actors meet, and sometimes confront, those of the brands' legal owners. This article integrates the extant branding research, a qualitative prestudy, and two complementary empirical studies to advance a theoretical process model of brand contestation. First, an in-depth analysis of thirty historical cases reveals its dynamics and how both the magnitude of contestation and the momentum of mobilization affect brand contestations' scope and evolution. Second, interviews with upper-level marketing and branding executives add an emerging perspective that brand managers can use the energy generated by consumers' contestation to develop antifragility—a brand's ability to grow and thrive as a result of contestation.

AbstractIn an era of unprecedented consumer access to media and the tools to control narrative delivery, speed, and exposure to transmedia content, there is no longer the illusion of a cohesive narrative managed by a recognized singular author or unified authorial voice. Instead, consumers carve their own trajectories through brand narratives. Our multimethod inquiry of television series viewing, based on a combination of interviews, diaries, video recordings followed by member-check interviews and online forum analyses, identifies two key forces that guide narrative navigation: how consumers manage a text's gravitational pull and its permeability to transmedia content. We find that consumers shape their own trajectories by adopting and/or moving between nine documented narrative positions. This more nuanced understanding of narrative consumption in a transmedia environment offers new insights for the study of narrative brand spaces and brand storytelling.