Objective: Part 1. To develop a wellness tool that assesses college student health-risk behaviors. Part 2. To examine whether there is an association between college student wellness status and academic performance. Participants and Methods: A retrospective design with secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) was used to build the new tool. Results: Principle components analysis of several ACHA-NCHA datasets identified a consistent set of 4 wellness dimensions which were labeled drug/alcohol awareness, physical, emotional, and sexual awareness. To evaluate content and face validity, the 23-item survey tool was administered to students at 2 colleges in the U.S. Reliability analysis of the tool was also performed. Conclusions: The new survey is a valid and innovative wellness tool developed specifically for college students. It includes individual facets of student health for intervention purposes, and combines the facet scores into a single, multidimensional wellness score for research purposes. College administrators and health professionals can use the tool to identify health-risk behaviors unique to their campuses; practitioners can use the data to design and implement interventions that promote wellness; and researchers can use the tool to assess student health risk outcomes.
