ACHA-NCHA Information
The American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) is a nationally recognized research survey that assists institutions of higher education in collecting precise data about student health habits, behaviors, and perceptions. College students are a diverse yet distinct population with specific health risks and needs. Having current, relevant data about BSU student health is used to enhance campus-wide health promotion and prevention services.
The ACHA-NCHA is conducted every two years at Ball State. Please click the link for a summary of the results:
If you have questions about the results or want to request executive summaries from 2013, 2015, or 2017, please email hpa@bsu.edu.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the National College Health Assessment?
A: The ACHA-National College Health Assessment (NCHA) is a nationally recognized research survey that can assist you in collecting precise data on a wide range of health and wellness issues that impact your student population and affect their academic performance. Learn more by clicking this link here.
Q: How are the students contacted using the NCHA-Web?
A: ACHA contacts students to participate in the ACHA-NCHA through a letter of invitation sent via e-mail. The unique link opens the informed consent page of the survey. Participants should read the information and if they agree to participate, they may click "Begin Survey."
Q: What measures does ACHA take to ensure/protect student and campus data privacy?
A: ACHA agrees to use the student email address provided by the institution for the sole purpose of requesting student participation in the ACHA-NCHA. The email addresses are used only for a single survey effort and not retained for future NCHA implementations at the same school. During data collection the email addresses are stored on a password protected secure server on the cloud with BOX. The file containing student email addresses is also uploaded into Qualtrics Research Suite software. Per both the Qualtrics and ACHA policies, student email addresses are never shared with another party nor used for any other purpose. After the data collection period ends and before ACHA-NCHA results are released to the campus, the files containing student email addresses are deleted from both the Qualtrics and BOX servers. To ensure that no copy of student email addresses is retained at ACHA, the files containing student email addresses are intentionally deleted from Trash folders in Box and cannot be retrieved after a 14-day grace period through Box User Services Support Team.
Q: Is the NCHA-Web considered anonymous or confidential?
A: The ACHA-NCHA web survey standard implementation protocol is confidential, not anonymous. While the student survey responses are anonymized upon survey submission, the survey is NOT administered ANONYMOUSLY and may not be described to the students as an anonymous survey.
Q: How long does it take to complete the survey? Does the student need to complete the survey in one sitting?
A: The ACHA-NCHA takes about 20-30 minutes to complete. The survey is “persistent,” in that a student may begin the survey, take a break, and return to the survey to complete it in another session. Persistence for the ACHA-NCHA is achieved via a web session ID embedded in the survey URL and maintained by the Qualtrics server. This feature ensures that each survey link is used only once and allows a student to pick up where they left off if they leave the survey and come back to it later. Each time the student encounters a page break in the survey, their responses up to that page break are saved and will remain populated the next time they use the survey link.
Q: Is it possible to take the ACHA-NCHA on a mobile device?
A: Yes, the survey is formatted to display on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet. On smaller devices, it’s best to view the survey in horizontal or landscape orientation rather than vertical or portrait.
Q: Is the ACHA-NCHA Section 508 Compliant?
A: The Federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility and Compliance Act (1998) is Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and establishes requirements that information technology systems may be operated in a variety of ways and do not rely on a single sense or ability of the user. The ACHA-NCHA is Section 508 compliant and accessible to the visually impaired via screen reader software. A copy of the Qualtrics Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is available on the ACHA-NCHA website if required by your campus.