NCHA @ UW

The ACHA-NCHA III is a nationally recognized research survey that can assist colleges and universities in collecting precise data about their students’ health habits, behaviors, and perceptions.

College students are a diverse yet distinct population with specific health risks and needs. Having current, relevant data about our students’ health can help us to enhance campus-wide health promotion and prevention services as well as overall programs and resources.

ACHA-NCHA III survey questions ask about students’ health habits, behaviors, and perceptions around the following topics:

• Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug

• Sexual health

• Weight, nutrition, and exercise

• Mental health

• Personal safety and violence

• Food insecurity and homelessness

YES! Student emails and any other identifiers are not linked with any survey responses. UW only receives institutional data and not individual respondent data. ACHA will only gather first names and email addresses of students who complete the survey so they can assist us in selecting winners of any incentives. All student information is destroyed by ACHA before the data is sent to our institution.

Your survey responses influence services, programs, and resources offered at UW. Rather than providing students with things that do not pertain to them, we use this data to create services and programs that are personalized to the needs of UW students. Additionally, you could be the winner of our many prizes! See below for more information.

YES! All students who submit a survey will be automatically entered in a random drawing for one of eight $25 Dining Dollars awards, a $100 UW Bookstore gift card, or the grand prize of your choice of three options:

1. Wellness Pack – 1-year Headspace subscription, weighted blanket, heating pad, heated neck and back massager, essential oils, and mindfulness tools!

2. Outdoor Game Pack – Spikeball, pickleball set, adjustable playing net, and a JBL Clip speaker.

3. Camping Pack – 4-person tent, hiking backpack, camping lights, hammock, sleeping bag and sleeping pad!

With this survey data, we can:

• Identify the most common health and behavior risks affecting students' academic performance.

• Design evidence-based health promotion programs with targeted educational and environmental initiatives.

• Create social norms marketing campaigns by comparing students' actual behaviors to their perceptions about peer behavior.

• Allocate budgeting and staffing resources based upon defined needs.

• Provide needs assessment data for campus and community task forces on sexual assault, alcohol use, eating disorders, etc.

• Have readily available graphs and data for policy discussions and presentations with faculty, staff, administration, and board members.

• Impact the campus culture by opening a dialogue about health with students and staff.

• Develop proposals to secure grant funding to expand or develop programs.

• Evaluate programming efforts by conducting repeat administrations of the survey.

Unfortunately, we cannot survey every UW student. Students are selected through a random sampling that represents UW’s student population based on class standing. But do not worry! If you are looking to win some cool prizes, keep an eye on the Wellness Center’s offerings and social media accounts for additional opportunities!