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Health Behaviors Assessment Facilitating Student Success WHAT IS THE HBA? The HBA is an Internet-based self-reporting instrument that measures three areas of health behavior: eating behavior, physical activity, and personal management skill. It is used to provide an individual student assessment and target potential behaviors for positive change. The HBA is useful as a screening device to identify the needs of student cohorts and assist institutional planning activities. The HBA also includes a measure that indicates student awareness and readiness to make personal improvements. Since the HBA measures specific behaviors, anchored by a time dimension, it can evaluate individual and group changes. The HBA has been developed by sampling over 2,200 students. An additional 260 students have received pre-test and post-test evaluations to measure their progress after interventions. HOW DO STUDENTS LEARN FROM THE HBA? A TOOL FOR ASSESSMENT, INTERVENTION, OUTCOME The HBA has been used as an assessment and evaluation tool for interventions and outcome research. Examples are: A peer-mentored intervention to improve personal health enhancement of college freshmen has demonstrated significant improvements on 14 out of 19 HBA variables as compared to an education only intervention. Research establishing how health behaviors of college students are associated with their academic success outcomes. Normative HBA profiles have been developed of baseline health behaviors among college freshmen at their first semester (N=1,286). Upon completion of the inventory, the student receives immediate feedback on an individual profile. The individual profile feedback compares the student’s results with established criterion standards into three possible categories: - Meeting recommendation - Close, but not meeting recommendation - Not meeting recommendation Follow-up resources include classroom healthy behavior presentation, resource website, and individualized intervention. HBA Profile Example K-CAT is a non-profit organization that distributes instruments designed to provide screening, feedback, diagnostic input, and outcome evaluation for specific areas of student performance. For more information, visit www.k-cat.org or call 785.532.3875 II. Eating Behavior Category - Foods that should be consumed often Meeting recommendatio n Close, but not meeting recommendatio n Not meeting recommendatio n Fruits and Vegetables √ Whole Grains √ √ Low-Fat or Fat-Free Dairy √ √ √ Category - Foods to use in moderation or sparingly Low Consumption Moderate Consumption High Consumption High Fat Foods √ √ Caffeinated Beverage √ √ √ Regular Pop/Soda √ Sweetened Beverage √ Alcoholic Beverage √ √ √ 41.4% 36.0% 1.7% 15.8% 42.7% 45.9% 77.8% 20.4% 18.1% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% S tre ng th T rainin g S tretching / Fle xibility G e n eral P h ysica l A ctivity P ercentof1,286 C o lleg e F resh m en M eetin g reco m m end atio n C lo se,b u t n o t yet m eetin g reco m m endation N o t m eetin g reco m m endation B aselin e H ealth B eh avio rs o f C o lleg e F resh m en : P h ysicalA ctivity R elationship ofH ealth B ehaviorw ith StudentSuccess O utcom e Eating B ehavior G P A A lcohol C onsum ption Personal Managem entSkill P hysicalA ctivity B M I Life Satisfaction .19 -.21 .16 .16 -.14 .44 -.14 -.21 .13 Regression coefficients of health behavior variables for each predictors (GPA, Life Satisfaction); S ignificant at alpha=.05
