Ping my health: An Internet-based college student health risk appraisal with tailored feedback

Health risk appraisals (HRAs) are commonly used to provide risk-reduction advice. Ping my Health, a web-based HRA, assesses young adults' health behaviors and provides immediate tailored feedback. Ping my Health was promoted to college students through a U.S. college health network and online advertisements using Google Adwords between September 2007 and December 2009. The HRA was completed by 22,714 college students (96.8% completion rate [starting n=23,458]; mean age = 20.7, SD = 2.8; 90.5% not Hispanic; 81.6% White; 33.9% male; 31.5% Freshman). From most to least prevalent, the health risks reported included eating inadequate servings of fruits and vegetables (91.1%); binge drinking (44.9%); eating fast food at least once/week (47.4%); having unprotected sexual intercourse (40.2% of those sexually active); inadequate physical activity (32.9%); feeling depressed in past year (30.1%), experiencing excessive stress (26.8%); driving while intoxicated (25.5%); smoking (14.0%); using marijuana (13.1%); and using smokeless tobacco (3.8%). On average, students exhibited 4.6 (out of 13) risk behaviors (SD=2.0); all but 12 participants reported engaging in at least 1 risk behavior. Further analyses revealed three profiles of co-occurring health behaviors: Risky Behaviors (binge drinking, smoking tobacco, intoxicated driving, marijuana use, and risky sexual intercourse), Wellness Behaviors (physical activity, fruit and vegetable intake, and fast food consumption), and Mental Health (depression and stress). College students engage in a variety of risky health behaviors, with poor nutrition and binge drinking being the most prevalent. The multi-faceted profiles of risky behavior underscore the importance of developing interventions that address multiple risk behaviors simultaneously.