Health a big obstacle for youth military recruitment in Latvia

Shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Latvia decided to rapidly increase the size of its army. As a result, the State Defence Service (VAD) has been in operation since July 2023. Currently, young people are being selected for conscription in July, A third of volunteers and about half of those conscripted are usually rejected due to health conditions, according to the Latvian Television programme "De Facto" aired on 22nd February.

Miķelis Znotiņš signed up for one of the first VAD drafts and completed it last spring. He confirmed that the service requires a certain amount of endurance: "Health, of course, definitely plays a role. [..] It's doable, nothing impossible is required. It is often psychologically difficult. Would I recommend preparing before service, getting used to running or physical exercise? Definitely, it helps, but you can do without it."

The sixth conscription for the National Defence Service began in January. Currently, 1,500 young people have been selected to begin 11 months of service in July. Although a record number of young people have applied themselves and this would seem to be sufficient for the draft, an additional 400 were selected by lottery. This is because one-third of the volunteers cannot be drafted due to health reasons, and up to half of those selected in the lottery.

In July 2025, 783 people volunteered for conscription, 566 (72%) began service, and 176 (22%) of the 800 who were selected for compulsory service began service – although some were rejected not only for health reasons, but also for other reasons.

New recruits by ten doctors, who perform tests, X-rays, and other examinations, and review the information available in the databases.

Each doctor gives their assessment, but the final decision is made by the head of the medical commission.

Edvina Fedoreka, representative of SIA "Dziedniecība" responsible for army health checks, said: "I would like to emphasise that each young person is assessed individually, according to these criteria, but individually. Therefore, one person may be asked to do something, while another may not be asked to do the same thing."

De facto asked young people who wanted to serve but were unable to do so to share their experiences. Wishing to remain anonymous, they cited insufficient weight, poor eyesight, and most commonly, anxiety and past use of medications, including antidepressants, as possible reasons.

Overall, according to Defense Ministry representative Biruta Kleina, health checks "reveal neurological disorders, muscle, skeletal, and large skeletal system disorders, and vision disorders. Here we see oral and dental problems. This is a range that is probably also present in the general youth population as a percentage."

An in-depth analysis of the findings shows that the reasons why young people were not accepted into the army were as follows: 35% had neurotic, stress-related, and somatoform disorders, 23% had endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic disorders, 15% had upper respiratory tract disorders, 14% had asthma and smoking-related lung disorders, and 13% had refractive eye disorders (impaired vision).

This coincides with the picture painted by the Disease Prevention and Control Centre (SPKC). It points out that the health of young people is constantly deteriorating, and that the first priority now is to halt this negative trend. "Around 30 per cent of children suffer from regular back pain and headaches, and mental health factors such as irritability and insomnia are particularly prominent," said Iveta Pudule, Senior Public Health Analyst at the SPKC.

The plan is to recruit four thousand people per year into the service after two years. And the birth rate and health indicators show that this will not be an easy task. There are no plans to change the criteria for recruitment at this time.

"The only thing we can change is to see how we can incorporate some mechanisms through the existing health institutions in the country to help identify some indicators before they come to us," says Grauze.