By: George Brown, University of Alabama, chair of the Engagement Subcommittee of the ACHA Healthy Campus Coalition and co-chair of the NIRSA Health and Wellbeing Commission 

Institutions of higher education across the country encourage students, faculty, staff, alumni, and even community members to attain and maintain health through facilities, programs, and services. Many institutions provide technologically-advanced state-of-the-art recreation and fitness facilities for cardio and strength and conditioning purposes as well as impressive aquatic centers and climbing/challenge course offerings. Convenient hours, safe and well-supervised equipment, and low costs all aid in attracting a wide variety of exercise and fitness enthusiasts.  

Encompassing More than Physical Wellbeing 

While exercise and fitness play a big role in campus recreation, these programs also impact their campus in further wellness dimensions. In fact, NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation (formerly the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association) recently created and recognized the Health and Wellbeing Commission as a core strategic value of their organization. NIRSA provides a vast array of resources for collegiate recreation departments seeking to maximize awareness and promote health and wellbeing in their campus communities. While recreation offerings on college and university campuses have long been associated with improving physical wellness (stronger bodies, improved muscular tone, increased cardiorespiratory endurance), the NIRSA Health and Wellbeing Commission is seeking to contribute to the dialog on the role and importance campus recreation plays in many other aspects of health.  
Outside of physical health, campus recreation resources also impacts:

• Social Wellbeing: Playing intramural and club sports on teams formed by affinity groups such as residence halls, fraternities, sororities, and faith-based organizations develops an appreciation for teamwork, cooperation, and sportsmanship. Being a part of a group promotes interactions that transcend the sport or activity, creating friendships and support groups.

• Emotional Wellbeing: Working out can provide healthy releases of stress and anxiety often associated with the pressures of college life. Physical activity can improve coping mechanisms that are often challenged in collegiate settings.

• Intellectual Wellbeing: Studies repeatedly show that study breaks – especially those that include physical activities and exercise – improve comprehension and retention of academic course material.

Involving Campus Recreation in Wellbeing Initiatives 

When institutions embark on health and wellbeing initiatives such as Healthy Campus or other campus-wide health programs, recreation departments are often asked to provide resources and expertise on physical wellness. Campus recreation staff and services can impact participants more broadly as well.  Recreation centers are high-traffic locations and are a good place to share/post health-related information such as smoking cessation programs, alcohol and other drug awareness campaigns, safe spring break alternatives, and stress reduction resources around final exams.

Recreation Promotion

Getting folks involved in recreation is easy. Many programs offer introductory fitness classes, individual and group personal training, and sports leagues that seek “free agents” who may not have established team connections. Do not let your campus community members be misled by the myth that they have to be a superstar athlete to participate. Today’s campus recreation departments offer something for everyone and provide a way to connect with others who share a desire to stay healthy and well. 

Visit your campus recreation facility today to learn more, participate, and connect on campus-wide health and wellness initiatives!

We are so pleased to announce that registration for the ACHA 2014 Annual Meeting has begun! We encourage you to register early – hotel rooms can go fast, and you’ll need to register before you can reserve a room at the discounted rate. Though this may seem like just one more step in the registration process, it helps us preserve rooms in our room block for those who have already registered and committed themselves to attending.

Since our founding in 1920, ACHA’s meetings have been a way for college health professionals to meet in person and catch up on the latest college health trends and practices. Even with today’s technology making it possible to have online meetings with colleagues from near and far, without ever leaving your office, there’s simply no substitute for meeting face to face.

The other great thing about attending a meeting is the charge in the air at these conferences. It’s an amazing thing when 2,000 energized, passionate people sharing the same goal – enhancing the wellness of their campus communities – come together. Our attendees are there to learn from one another and perhaps flip their old ways of thinking on end and come away with new ones. You can feel the excitement brewing and there’s a buzz in the air.

We really hope you’ll join us this year. We have lots of great sessions scheduled as well as some fun events and activities to help you recharge and meet other attendees!

Stay tuned for more posts that will cover featured events, programming, and other things to do in San Antonio. In the meantime, check out these conference FAQs.

By: Stacy Andes, Villanova University, and Tavis Glassman, University of Toledo

The American College Health Association’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Coalition (ACHA ATOD) focuses on substance abuse prevention and treatment specific to the college student population. An issue of increasing concern for the coalition involves non-medical prescription drug use (NMPDU). Although its prevalence ranks a distant fourth to alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use on college and university campuses, non-medical use of prescription drugs far exceeds other illicit drug use. Of particular concern is the link between NMPDU and the use of other drugs, often in combination, which poses additional risks for students today.

For the purposes of this blog, non-medical prescription drug use is generally defined as the use of a prescription medication:

• For anything other than its intended purpose;
• By someone other than the person to whom it is prescribed; or
• In a dosage other than prescribed.

This definition applies to the illicit user as well as to the prescribed user who is not using the medication as prescribed.

Scope of the Problem
Non-medical prescription drug use is a problem throughout the United States and has been classified as an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still, it is important for colleges and universities to assess the extent of use on their respective campuses. In the earliest studies, rates of non-medical prescription stimulant use on our Nation’s campuses were reported to range from 0 to 25 percent,1 and trend data between 1993 and 2005 alerted the public health community to rate increases between 93 percent and 450 percent across various prescription drugs (e.g., stimulants, painkillers, sedatives, and tranquilizers).2

In most cases, reported use rates on campuses around the country from 2008-2012 are less than 10 percent for any prescription drug category (e.g., painkillers and stimulants) and, in some instances, less than 5 percent (antidepressants, sedatives, and erectile dysfunction drugs) for past year use.3 These trends are consistent with results from both the Monitoring the Future survey4 and in ongoing longitudinal studies in the Northeast5 and Midwest.6 Nonetheless, these rates are unacceptably high, and campus officials may be unaware of the potential consequences of NMPDU, which can include drug-related emergency room visits, sexual assault, violent behavior, and academic misconduct (e.g., use of prescription drugs to improve test scores).

Guiding Comments and Recommendations

• Link NMPDU with alcohol use. College health professionals and other campus officials are only beginning to understand who is at risk for NMPDU. Institutions of higher education with advanced admissions standards located in the Northeast demonstrate disproportionately high rates of non-medical prescription stimulant use.1 Additionally, studies have consistently found that white, male, Greek-affiliated students are at the greatest risk.1,7,8,9 This profile is similar to that of individuals with a higher risk for alcohol use, as drinking and drug-use behaviors are highly correlated.10 College health professionals, therefore, should consider utilizing evidence-based practices that target high-risk alcohol use (e.g., brief motivational interviewing) to also address NMPDU.
  

• Increase perceived harmfulness. As with alcohol use, college students generally perceive NMPDU as relatively harmless. In one study,11 40 percent of students assigned only moderate risk to non-medical use of prescription stimulants (e.g., Adderall®) and analgesics (e.g., Vicodin®). Compounding the problem is that many students suffer from “optimistic bias,” mistakenly believing that the negative consequences associated with drug use happen to others and not themselves. Because prescription medications are produced legally and distributed through doctors, students often perceive them as safer than illicit drugs, further reducing the stigma associated with their use. College health professionals should consider increasing students’ awareness and assessment of the harm associated with non-medical prescription drug use through their social marketing and educational outreach efforts.12
  

• Leverage the prescribed user. Research shows that the prescribed user, under medical supervision, demonstrates the same risk as the average college student for illicit drug use. However, prescribed users who overuse and non-medical users both exhibit a much greater risk for illicit drug use.13 College health professionals should educate students in the appropriate use of prescription drugs and work to build their confidence in managing requests (from friends or other students, for example) to share or sell their medication.
  

• Utilize social norms marketing. Research indicates college students and others grossly overestimate the extent of non-medical prescription drug use.12 For instance, students may think that 75 percent of their peers use Adderall® non-medically, when in fact fewer than 10 percent do. Correcting these misperceptions may result in decreased NMPDU.
  

• Work with local partners. Because alcohol and other drug use impacts both the campus and the surrounding community, colleges and universities should seek to engage and work closely with local partners – healthcare providers, pharmacies, merchants, and law enforcement, to name a few. While many students obtain prescription medications from their peers for free, we also know that students are “doctor shopping” and selling medications to other students.4 Reducing access in the community can also help to reduce access on campus.12
  

Coalition and Related Reports
The ACHA ATOD Coalition provides resources related to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention as well as evidence-based intervention strategies. A number of resources are currently available on the ACHA ATOD Coalition webpage, including the Non-Medical Prescription Drug Use Toolkit for Health Promotion Professionals and links to national data sources on ATOD issues on college and university campuses.