The Nevada Sagebrush

Click to enlarge - Photo by Emily Stott / Nevada Sagebrush.

When administrators’ efforts to improve health statistics that put the University of Nevada, Reno “at the top of all the bad lists and the bottom of all the good ones” began, few were expecting that quote to be completely true.

When health officials received the results of a 2007 study telling them just that, efforts were already underway to reverse the trend. Now, the center is even more intensely working to develop better educational programs in an attempt to fix the campus’ health problems.

The Student Health Center hired Enid Jennings as a health educator and tasked her with improving campus health. With little information available when she began the job, the first thing Jennings did was bring the National College Health Assessment to UNR, she said. Since then it has been a long road to finding problems and developing ways to start solving them.

The assessment, conducted by the American College Health Association, a national organization that monitors the health of post-secondary students in the United States, showed UNR with above-average rates of almost every health problem, from minor allergy problems to sexually transmitted infections.

“When you look at data like that, we’re worse off than the national average,” health educator Enid Jennings said.

Dominic DiPrinzio, a 21-year-old biology major who also works as an emergency medical technician, said he was not surprised by the university’s troubling health statistics.

“There are a lot of unhealthy people around here. I see that a lot,” he said, referring to his work as an EMT. “Plus, there’s soda machines everywhere, fast food everywhere.”

Low nutrition and high obesity rates were far from the statistics campus health officials were spending the most focus on, though. Among the biggest disparities with the national averages were rates of sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse and depression.

Although the rates of substance abuse and depression are national problems, the high levels of sexually transmitted infections can be traced to a probable cause: only 66 percent of UNR students reported using a condom the last time they had sex, Dr. Cheryl Hug-English, director of the Student Health Center, said. Because of that, rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia, two of the most prevalent STIs at UNR, were around double the national averages.

The survey also showed that fewer UNR students get the recommended amount of exercise or the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables than the national average.

While some of UNR’s health problems, like allergy problems and asthma rates, are unavoidable, others can be easily mitigated with resources already available on campus, Hug-English said.

And those resources exist on campus, according to the same survey that said students are not using them. According to the NCHA, the university ranks highly in health services offered to students on campus.

Most students know about the services, Lindsey Briare, a 19-year-old physics major, said.

“I just think people are too lazy to use them,” she said. “I’m not sure if the educational approach would work, but it might.”

DiPrinzio was more optimistic.

“If you don’t educate (students), I don’t see how you can fix anything,” he said.

To change the disparity between adequate services and inadequate use of them, Hug-English said the Student Health Center’s efforts will focus on education and awareness.

“In addition to what we’ve always offered at our clinic, we’re trying to promote healthy behavior to students,” she said.

Jennings said that as the campus’ health education coordinator, that task falls to her.

As part of the education program she is designing, Jennings said she’s spent much of her time over the past two years developing a marketing campaign. The goal of the campaign, “My N Crowd,” is to provide UNR students with information on common health issues and how they can be prevented, as well as the availability of services on campus like the Student Health Center, Lombardi Recreation Center, the Counseling Center and others, she said.

While the campaign is still in the design phase, Jennings said an early version of a Web site is online and signs and fliers should be available soon. She said she hopes to launch the full Web site and the campaign in the next few months.

Jay Balagna can be reached at jbalagna@nevadasagebrush.com.

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