Student health is more important than ever. For the first time, the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) — an online survey — will be sent to all IUPUI students to help address the health and wellness needs of IUPUI’s student body.
All students who participate in the survey will have the chance to win 1 of 10 $100 Amazon gift cards. Eric Teske, director of Health and Wellness Promotion, talks about the importance of the health survey and why students should take part.
Question: How can students fill out the survey?
Answer: The survey will be sent to all IUPUI students by email on Monday, Feb. 13 and will remain open until Sunday, March 5.
Q: Why is the health survey so important?
A: The survey results are used to determine funding priorities for health and wellness programs on campus. Based on what we find out, we will shift funds to address areas of student health and well-being that are trending in the wrong direction.
Since the survey only happens every three years, it is really important that we get as many students to respond as possible, so that we can accurately identify areas of concern. The survey is completely voluntary, but we hope thousands of students respond so that we get the best information possible.
Q: What types of questions will the survey ask?
A: The questions cover a variety of topics, from physical to mental health, illegal substance abuse, sexual behavior and interpersonal violence. Since many of these questions are very personal, privacy is of the utmost importance.
The survey never asks students for identifying information and IUPUI has no way to match any survey answers with any particular students.
Q: What has the survey been able to do in past years?
A: The last time we did the survey, we saw alarming numbers of students who met the criteria for low food security. This finding helped to increase financial support for Paws’ Pantry.
In 2020, we also learned that IUPUI was lagging behind the national average for condom use, so we started sending free condoms to students by mail to increase distribution. Now our Safer Sex Supplies program has tripled in capacity and distributes 17,000 products a year. This is a perfect example of identifying a need using survey data and doing something about it to benefit the students we serve.
Students who have questions about the survey can contact Eric Teske at erictesk@iupui.edu.