Acupuncture and chiropractic students health habits, behaviors and perceptions at a CAM school

Use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use by college and university students may be harmful. Promoting and establishing healthy behaviors will improve student health and safety and may also improve academic performance. National College Health Assessment Survey is a well –validated health survey and has been collecting data since 1998. More than 825,000 students at 550+ colleges have been surveyed. The questionnaire includes questions on a wide range of health habits, behaviors and perceptions such as smoking habits, contraceptive use, mental health issues, relationship difficulties, sexual behaviors, preventive health practices, exercise habits. It can be administered both in-person and online and takes around 30 minutes to complete. While data on students in four year and two year colleges is available, there is no data about health care students health habits, behaviors and perceptions, particularly complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) students. We hypothesize that the health behaviors of CAM students' will be different and better than regular college students. Our primary objective is to identify the most common health and behavior risks among acupuncture and chiropractic students and conduct a needs assessment to determine if specific health education is necessary. The survey is in progress and so the results will be presented during our presentation.