Keywords

1 Introduction

With regard to physical fitness training and the detection of accidental injuries and fatalities, this study collects statistics from national news reports from the years 2013 to 2016, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Accidents caused by physical fitness assessment and training in the National Army.
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According to US military reports, two to three people have died each year since 2010 during physical training (Caitlin 2020). This study uses news media broadcasts to collect statistics from 2017 to 2020, as shown in Table 2.

Especially recently, events such as marathon and triathlon have gradually become national sports, and runners and ordinary people can monitor and adjust their running schedule and training strategy anytime and anywhere (Xu and Zhuang 2018).The data is then transmitted to cloud computing via wired or wireless communication, and the cloud feeds the results back to personal mobile devices, allowing users to obtain necessary information (Chen 2015). To improve the overall effectiveness of the unit's physical training and prevent training accidents, the US Marines have developed a physical training APP (2019) to improve the physical fitness level of members and units, as well as to keep track of the injury rate of the entire Marines and which training is more likely to lead to injury (Jiang 2020).

Table 2. US military physical fitness assessment and training accidents.
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The aim of this study is to examine the existing process of the National Army's physical fitness inspection at the station, reduce the labour cost and inspection time consumption, and establish and improve the risk factor assessment method to effectively monitor the physiological monitoring data generated by officers and soldiers during the inspection. In addition, it effectively analyses and evaluates the accident risk during the assessment, so as to reduce the injury and accident incidents during the physical fitness assessment and training.

In recent years, there are still some soldiers who get injured or pass away during physical fitness training or test in National Physical Fitness Test Center or home station. This research focus on reviewing the current procedures of physical fitness test of the ROC Armed Forces, cutting manpower and time, and building a comprehensive way to assess risk in order to monitor the soldier’s body performance and status effectively. The goal is to reduce the injuries and casualties during physical fitness test and training.

There are three purposes of our research. The first one is to establish a complete assessment mechanism for the national military to assess risk factors for physical fitness in the garrison, and update the content of the national military physical fitness risk management operation manual and defense regulations to meet the actual implementation needs of the national military. According to the physical and psychological conditions of officers and soldiers during the physical fitness assessment of the National Army, the introduction of body monitoring equipment can effectively monitor the physiological monitoring data generated by officers and soldiers during assessment and training, and reduce personal injuries and casualties. The third one is to re-formulate the national military physical fitness assessment group and assessment process to reduce manpower expenditure and time consumption of the assessment process.

This research applies the Delphi method to construct framework for risk assessment. The experts selected by this research are professionals who serve as the chief officer of the National Army, the director of the training business department, the physicians and lecturers of the National Military Hospital as the selection conditions, and form an expert group to participate in the revision of the research structure and subsequent filling in order to provide professional opinions. After the literature discussion, the prototype structure was established, and 3 evaluation aspects and 13 evaluation criteria were summarized, and the prototype structure was used to interview the expert group of this study. The final research framework was determined through the results of expert interviews, including 4 evaluation aspects and 9 criteria. And then uses the decision-making laboratory method to identify key factors and results.

2 Review and Discussion of Military Fitness Risk Factors

Literature survey on the risk factors affecting the physical fitness of the national army. Jiang Yaozheng (2011) pointed out that the factors affecting the national military's physical fitness assessment and training cause sports injuries, including (1) demographic characteristics (age, place of residence, education level, parameters such as smoking habits and exercise habits), (2) physiological indicators (height, weight, BMI, body fat percentage, waist and hip circumference and other parameters), (3) sports injury prevention and cognition.

Huang (2012) pointed out the risk factors affecting the physical fitness evaluation of the 3,000 m barefoot running, the evaluation criteria include (1) BMI values, (2) cardiac and respiratory endurance indicators, and (3) human physical condition. Hong (2016) noted that the risk factors that affect physical fitness assessment of the national army, the evaluation criteria are (1) body quality index, (2) weight management, (3) ECG, pulse, systole and diastole blood pressure physical examination index.

Xu 2017) investigated the source of risk in physical fitness training and testing, according to the negligence of personnel, the characteristics of training items, the time of training and testing, the safety of training and venues, the safety of training equipment, and the physical fitness and health status of officers and soldiers. 3 risk factors and 13 risk factors were summarised.

Ye and Su (2018) suggest that understanding fatigue recovery timing and practice in athletic training are key metrics to avoid sports injuries and master effective athletic training. Most of the risk factors come from exercise-induced fatigue, the evaluation criteria are (1) exercise intensity self-perception table, (2) observation method: 1. Self-perception, 2. Perception of others, 3. EMG.

Cai et al. (2018) noted that in the future physical fitness test, wearable devices can be integrated into the physical fitness test equipment of the military to monitor the national.The real-time state of exercise during the physical fitness assessment of military personnel can reduce the risk of sports injuries and accidental injuries, as well as preventive medical reference. Through the evaluation of 4 criteria, namely (1) mental index, (2) wearable technology, (3) cardiac stress assessment, and (4) data records, it is possible to evaluate whether it is possible to incorporate wearable devices into the military's physical fitness assessment equipment to reduce the risk of sports injuries and accidental injuries.

Zhang et al. (2019) explored the major factors causing sports injuries in army football players, and summarised three dimensions, (1) ‘‘weight training’’, (2) ‘‘external environment’’, and (3) ‘‘internal environment’’. The ‘‘environment’’ criteria include (1) insufficient training time, (2) insufficient training volume, (3) excessive training volume, (4) old training equipment, (5) inadequate equipment, (6) poor site environment, (7) affected by weather, (8) inadequate psychological construction, (9) failure to wear protective gear, (10) failure to warm up before the game, (11) lack of concentration, and other 11 criteria.

Wang (2019) pointed out that risk factors should be analysed and evaluated based on three aspects, namely (1) the “basic quality” of officers and soldiers, (2) the frequency of training, and (3) the relationship between strength and physical fitness. Zhang (2019) pointed out that in order to effectively improve physical fitness and reduce sports injuries, criteria such as (1) heart rate belt, (2) heart rate value, and (3) rating of perceived exertion (RPE) should be combined.

In the above literature analysis, only Xu (2017) literature is based on the compilation rules of the Army Risk Management Operation Manual, and proposes physical fitness risk factors to distinguish personnel, environmental and mechanical factors, which is more consistent with this study's focus. Thus, this study combined some aspects and criteria with the same or similar definitions in the literature, and ultimately constructed a prototype research framework including three aspects and 13 evaluation criteria, and defined each criteria, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Aspects and criteria of prototype architecture.
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3 Research Methodology and Results

3.1 Establishment of a Formal Research Framework

This study makes use of the Delphi method, which is a long-term forecasting technique that was developed by the Rand Corporation in the United States in the 1960s. Pill (1971); Shefer and Stroumsa (1981); Rowe et al.(1991). Through anonymous written discussion among experts, the Delphi method encourages experts to use their professional knowledge, experience and opinions to reach a consensus on complex issues. Based on the prototype research framework shown in Table 3, this study uses the interview method of experts’ experience, intuition and value judgement (Deng 2012), and finally confirms the formal research framework. The experts selected in this study are professionals in the roles of chief officer of the national army, director of the training business department, doctor and lecturer of the national military hospital, who form an expert group to participate in the revision of the questionnaire structure and the filling of the follow-up questionnaire, and provide professional opinions.

The first expert survey on the addition and deletion of the prototype structure was conducted in March 2021. The opinions of the experts were listed. Following this, the dimensions of the prototype structure have been modified according to the modifications proposed by the expert panel, and a second expert interview has been conducted for this prototype framework in April 2021. Finally, after two rounds of expert interview revisions, a formal research framework consisting of four dimensions and nine criteria was finally determined. The formal evaluation levels and definitions were sorted as shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Aspects and criteria of Formal Architecture
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3.2 Determination of the Causal Relationship and the Key Factors

This study uses the DEMATEL method to clarify the causal relationship between the factors and criteria that influence the risk assessment of the National Military Fitness Assessment. First, through the distribution of questionnaires, a direct influence relationship matrix X based on the results of the questionnaires is generated, and then by normalizing the direct influence matrix and bringing it into the formula T = X \({\left(1-\mathbf{X}\right)}^{-1}\). The total influence relationship matrix T (Total Influence Matrix) established according to the criteria can be obtained as shown in Table 5.

Table 5. The total influence relationship matrix
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The d value can be obtained by summing each column of the total impact marix in Table 5; the r value can be obtained by summing each row. The row and column sum (d + r) of each item is called “importance”, which indicates the relevance of that item to the problem. The rank difference (d-r) of each element is called the “causal degree”. If the rank difference is positive, it means that this element is biased towards “active influence” and is classified as a cause; if the rank difference is negative, this element is biased towards “influence”. Impact” is classified as effect. According to the overall impact relationship matrix in Table 5, calculate the importance and correlation as shown in Table 6.

Table 6. Importance and Relevance of Corresponding Criteria
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This study adopts the DANP operation framework proposed by Hu et al. (2015), uses DEMATEL's total influence matrix as the unweighted super matrix in ANP operation, normalises the matrix, and self-normalises the results until the fourth convergence, obtaining the limit super matrix shown in Table 7. The relative weight of each criterion can be determined by the limit super matrix.

Table 7. Extreme Super Matrix
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In order to determine the final overall ranking of the criteria, the importance ranking of DEMATEL and the weight ranking of DANP are used in this study. The sum of the rankings in Table 8 is also called the Borda score. The lower the score, the more important the criterion.

Table 8. Ranking of criterion weight
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From the results in Table 8, it can be seen that, according to the discussions with the experts, the five most important criteria for assessing the risk factors affecting the physical fitness of the national military are “Identification of potential dangers in the physical and mental state of officers and soldiers (A1)”, “Physical monitoring equipment (C3)”, “Medical readiness and cognition (A2)”, “First aid equipment (C2)” and “Hazard prevention facilities (C1)”. And causality diagram between key criteria shows in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.
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Causality Diagram Between Key Criteria

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4 Conclusions

The results of the research show that the key factors include: “the physiological status of soldiers”, “health monitoring device”, “medical care preparation and knowledge”, “first aid equipment” and risk prevention facility. In addition, the results also indicate that “health monitoring device”, “medical care preparation and knowledge”, “first aid equipment” and “risk prevention facility” that are key factors for reducing the risk and need to be improved. The cause-effect diagram shows that “identification of potential hazards of soldier’s bodies and physiological status” can be used as a source to improve other key factors. Even ROC Armed Forces applies many methods and procedures for monitoring soldiers’ mental and physiological status when they take physical fitness test in order to reduce risks some means are still insufficient. The overall results are positive. However, it still needs some enhancement during assessment and evaluation. The current physical fitness test is evaluated by human at home station and no electrical device and health monitoring equipment are used during test for measure solder’s basic physiological status. Therefore, many soldiers get injured or die during the test. The results of this research can help the ROC Armed Force combine advanced technologies and devices for physical fitness test and applies the risk assessment to reduce casualties, cut down extra manpower and testing time.