Total Student Health of a Technical College in the Midwest

Twenty-nine percent of the population in Wisconsin- compared to 27% in the United States- is considered obese (Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 2017). College is typically one of the final ‘steps’ in young adulthood before entering the workforce. It is vital that campuses are doing their best to educate and help guide students to create a healthy lifestyle that will follow them into their careers.

Past research has shown that there is a gap in knowledge regarding the non-traditional students and health. To better understand non-traditional student health, students were asked to complete an 83-question survey. The surveys were completed online during summer semester 2018. After completion of the survey, data was analyzed and compiled and suggestions to improve the total health of non-traditional students were made.

The driving question was to complete an assessment of total campus health for students at a community college in the Midwest through examining the current culture of health and the examination of the physical health and mental health. The sample group consisted of 1,331 undergraduate students from a technical college in rural Wisconsin. The convenience sample was 50 non-traditional students (43 females, 7 males) with an average age of 31.

Students showed to have the most interest in losing weight, gaining muscle and stress and anxiety reduction. Eating habits were inconsistent. These results suggest that in order to increase non-traditional student health, efforts should be made towards weight loss, muscle gain, nutritional education and increasing mental health.