A National Survey of College Health Education/Health Promotion Evaluation Activities

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Abstract
A national survey of college and university health education/health promotion evaluation activities was sent to American College Health Association (ACHA) member institutions and members of the ACHA Health Education Section. One hundred and fifty-eight (158) colleges and universities responded to the survey, indicating the kind of evaluation (e.g., program monitoring, outcome studies) conducted within specific content areas (e.g., nutrition, stress). The survey also solicited information on the impact of evaluation findings on programming and the degree of administrative support and pressure for evaluation. Results indicate that evaluation findings are most often used to modify or justify continuing programs. Most staff report administrative support for evaluation, less than one-third of the programs earmark funds for evaluation, and lack of time is perceived as the biggest problem in conducting evaluation activities. Most programs rely on program monitoring and survey techniques rather than more sophisticated evaluation designs. The implications of the survey results are discussed, and recommendations for improving health education evaluation practices are suggested. “Lymphadenopathy-Associated Viral Antibody in Aids; Immune Correlations and Definition of a Carrier State,” Jeffrey Laurence, et al. We investigated whether serologic evidence of lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV), an exogenous human T-cell lymphotropic and cytopathic retrovirus, correlated with the acquisition and transmission of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Serum from 17 of 25 patients with AIDS contained circulating IgC anti-LAV antibody (all of 5 adults with cancer and 6 of 12 adults and 6 of 8 children with opportunistic infections, with or without Kaposi's sarcoma). All of eight homosexual men with generalized lymphadenopathy or the AIDS-related complex and five homosexual men with AIDS prodromes who subsequently had AIDS were also seropositive. The anti-LAV antibody was not found in 99 of 100 healthy blood donors or in 23 patients with genetic immunodeficiencies, supporting the contention that LAV is unlikely to represent simply another opportunistic microorganism. An AIDS carrier state was indicated by the probable transfer of LAV from asymptomatic, immunologically competent mothers to their offspring. These data offer a basis for the hypotheses that LAV is a marker for AIDS, may be carried and transmitted in the absence of clinical findings or in vitro T-cell abnormalities, and is probably an etiologically important agent in AIDS and its prodromes. (New England Journal of Medicine 1984;311:1269–73.

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