A Scope-of-Practice Survey Leading to the Development of Standards of Practice for Health Promotion in Higher Education

Abstract

To review and analyze the scope of practice of health promotion services and draft standards of quality indicators for higher education communities, the American College Health Association (ACHA) initiated a Task Force on Health Promotion in Higher Education in May 1996. Members of the task force developed a National Survey on Health Promotion and Education in Institutions of Higher Education and mailed the survey to a stratified random sample of 600 ACHA member institutions, as well as to 97 key “best-practice health promotion leaders.” The larger sample produced a 75.3% response rate, and 90.7% of the key informants returned usable surveys. The authors report selected findings from both groups that chronicle the state of health promotion practice in higher education at the close of the 20th century. The task force used the findings to establish a data-driven framework for the Year 2001 Standards of Practice for Health Promotion in Higher Education.

Key Words:

• health promotion
• higher education
• standards of practice
• quality assurance

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine G. Zimmer

Christine G. Zimmer, former director of the Office of Health Promotion and Education, Sindecuse Health Center, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, and former Cochairperson, American College Health Association Task Force on Health Promotion in Higher Education, is currently a health promotion consultant. Martin H. Hill is a doctoral assistant in the Department of Sociology at Western Michigan where Subhash R. Sonnad, former director of the Kercher Center for Social Research, is a professor of sociology.