The development of the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III: An improved tool to assess and enhance the health and well-being of college students

Abstract

This article describes the development of the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III (ACHA-NCHA III), a widely used comprehensive survey that assesses college students’ health behaviors and outcomes at the institutional and national levels. Only the second major revision since the ACHA-NCHA was established in 2000, the ACHA-NCHA III launched in Fall of 2019. Background on the purpose and history of the ACHA-NCHA will first be provided. Then the systematic steps taken to create a new and enhanced version of the survey will be recounted. An overview of the final ACHA-NCHA III instrument will be given, and future directions for the survey post-implementation will be discussed.

Keywords:

• American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment
• ACHA-NCHA III
• college health
• college students
• survey

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the members of the ACHA-NCHA III workgroup for their contributions and diligence over the past several years. Committee members include (in alphabetical order): Sherri L. Darrow, Faith DeNardo, Lauren Drinkard, Valerie Hartman, Susan R. Hochman, Patricia L. Ketchum, Christine Kukich, E. Victor Leino, Alejandro M. Martinez, and Allison J. Smith. The authors also thank the many ACHA-NCHA institutional coordinators, expert consultants, and students for their integral feedback throughout the ACHA-NCHA III development process.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Disclosure statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy Mary T. Hoban reports that she is employed by the American College Health Association.

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable as no new data were created or analyzed for this article.

Additional information

Funding

The National College Health Assessment is funded by the ACHA and participating institutions.