“Healthy Athlete 2000”: Planning a Health Education Initiative Using the PRECEDE Model

Abstract

Collegiate athletes have been identified as a target population for health promotion programming because of their increased vulnerability to health-compromising behaviors. These behaviors are due, in part, to a number of conditions inherent in American society and culture, campus life, and university athletic programs which negatively contribute to the student athlete's health as well as their quality of life. Prior program planning efforts have been compromised by a number of factors such as atheoretical and inadequate planning; partial attention to special circumstances and motivating factors that predispose athletes to health-compromising behaviors; programming that is not holistic, transbehavioral, or transsituational; and programming that does not include cost-effective influential means of behavior change such as peer helpers. The Health Education Subcommittee of the Drug Education and Testing Task Force at a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I university used the PRECEDE Model to plan a comprehensive “Healthy Athlete 2000” health promotion initiative. The subcommittee's planning activities are chronicled and recommendations are provided for application of the PRECEDE Model to a unique subpopulation.