Health and
Wellness
Strategic
Priority
Taskforce
Final Recommendations
October 2006
Membership

Jennifer Myers, Campus Rec.

Caryn Lindsay, ISO
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Chairs: Mary Visser & Christine Connolly

Lori Lamb, Human Resources

Pehn Van Lo. Multicultural Services

Judith Luebke, IFO

Mark McCollough, IFO

Rob McGinn, MAPE,

Therese Mullins, Wellness Committee
Jason Djuren, Student
Sue Fredstrom, IFO

Lindsay Gullingsrud, Women’s Ctr.

Jennifer Guyer-Wood, MSUAASF

Jeff Pribyl, IFO

Kaye Herth, Dean

Nancy Rolfsrud, Counseling Center

Carol Jensen, MMA

Toya Schmidtke, MNA

Wendy Schuh, Alcohol Working Group

Gary Urban, MAPE


Penny Knoblich, IFO
Tammy Kunze, AFSCME
Background of the task force
 Formed in fall 2005 as one of the President’s
Strategic Initiatives.
 The group met for the first time in January
2006
 Agreed upon a definition of wellness to be used
 Decided to split into subgroups to gather
information in 4 areas deemed crucial for making
informed recommendations
Four Primary Areas for Investigation
 Health and Wellness of Students
 2004 ACHA and NCHA data
 Health Costs for the University
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Fall 2005 insurance surveys taken by state employees
DOER data
Worker’s Compensation information for past 3 years
Sick leave use for past 2-3 years
 Existing Health and Wellness Resources on Campus
 Survey of program directors, department chairs
 Wellness needs and interests of faculty, staff
administrators
 Survey of faculty, staff, and administrators
Group 1
Charge
Analyze the American College Health Association
(ACHA) National College Health Assessment (NCHA)
data for Minnesota State Mankato Mankato and
compare it to the ACHA-NCHA national data (2004).
Demographics of Students
 Male 38% /Female 49%
 Average Age 21.5 years
 Ethnic Origin
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87% Caucasian
2.8% Asian/Pacific Island
2.0% African American
1.4% Latino
0.9% American Indian
1.4% Other
4.5% unknown
Summary Findings – Group 1 (Students)
The most commonly reported health problems
by students at Minnesota State Mankato are:
 Back pain
 Allergies
 Sinus infections
 Depression
Summary Findings Group 1 (Students)
The major factors impacting academic
performance are:
 Stress
 Sleep difficulties
 Cold/flu/sore throats
 Relationship difficulties
 Alcohol use
Summary Findings Group 1 (Students)
Areas where Minnesota State Mankato patterns
of behavior are worse than the national
average:
 Alcohol use
 Depression/anxiety
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Back Pain and Exercise
 Back Pain was seen more commonly in
individuals who exercise vigorously and / or
strength trained 3.3 days or more per week.
Recommendation
 Offer education on lifting and strength training
to avoid injury.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Sleep Difficulties
 There is a statistically significant relationship
between sleep difficulties and decreased
academic performance.
Recommendation:
 Identify evidence based programs to impact
sleep issues.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Computer Games
 As time online with computer games increased
academic performance decreased.
 Next step: Determine if there is a relationship
between sleep difficulties and online computer
games.
Recommendation:
 Add questions to the NCHA survey tool to explore
online computer gaming.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Alcohol Use/Abuse
 Students involved in physical fights are more
likely to have used alcohol than others.
 Student who always keep track of alcohol
they consume, drink significantly less than
those who don’t.
 There is a strong correlation between number
of drinks consumed and academic impact,
lower grades, more classes missed, etc.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Recommendations:
 Provide evidence based alcohol initiatives that have
the potential to impact drinking behaviors.
 Provide campus and community leadership regarding
alcohol issues and provide consistent messages.
 Continue the work of the Alcohol Working Group on
campus to complete a long term strategic plan.
 Provide base funding for alcohol initiatives.
 Investigate the benefits of adding a credit course on
alcohol to the curriculum for all freshmen.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Emotional abuse
 Students in an emotionally abusive relationship in the
last two years are more likely to consider attempting
suicide than those not in an emotionally abusive
relationship.
Recommendation:
 Provide additional professional staff to address issues
of abuse.
 Maintain summer counseling hours and a sexual
violence education coordinator position.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Depression
 Students diagnosed with depression are more likely
to attempt suicide (most prevalent in females).
Recommendation:
 Offer increase counseling services for students with
depression.
 Continue to provide psychiatric consult services.
Group 2: Health Costs to the University
Charge
Gather and analyze existing data on health and
wellness of Minnesota State University, Mankato
employees to establish a baseline estimate of yearly
costs to the institution.
Summary Findings Group 2
Risk factors contributing to illness lost time at work and health care
costs as reported by major insurance carrier survey are:
PreferredOne:
 Nutrition, body weight, physical inactivity, cancer.
BCBS:
 Nutrition, body weight, stress, physical inactivity
 Most costly risk factors: cardiovascular disease, weight,
depression, stress
HealthPartners:
 Nutrition, physical inactivity, body weight.
Recommendations
 Baseline data for sick leave needs to be systematically collected
and analyzed in a way that categorizes personal sickness vs.
family illness.
 Workers compensation data needs to be analyzed in a way that
1-2 large claims a year do not skew true cost/injury.
 Data collected need to separate unavoidable injury from
preventable injury – since preventable injury can be decreased
to drive costs down.
 Wellness initiatives on campus should link with DOER to provide
programming to address “lifestyle diseases” (nutrition, weight,
stress, physical activity) as these are top risk factors for
employees.
Group 3 - Needs/Interests of Faculty /Staff
Charge
To gather and perform preliminary analyses of
faculty, staff, and administrators expressed
needs and interests related to health and
wellness programs and initiatives.
Summary Findings Group 3
 Web-based delivery was generally preferred for most
health-related information with particular exceptions
noted below:
 Male respondents tended to prefer web-based information
over other ways to receive information.
 Female respondents were more likely to indicate a
willingness to participate in a seminar or class.
 Respondents between 45 and 55 years of age were more
likely to be interested in a seminar/class than other
respondents.
 IFO members were more likely to prefer web-based delivery
than to participate in a seminar or class.
 AFSCME members were more interested in participating in
seminars or classes as compared to other bargaining units.
Findings/ Recommendations
 Health education information with a focus on nutrition,
fitness, workplace ergonomics, personal safety,
managing health conditions/disease prevention,
immunization and screening for common conditions,
and stress and financial management were of interest
to the total sample.
 Health education issues related to parenting and
eating disorders were of less interest to the total
sample.
Findings/Recommendations
 Employees were interested in physical activities being offered on
campus and many said they would participate if programs were
offered in specific areas such as resistance training.
 The primary immunization employees were interested obtaining
on campus were flu shots.
 Screenings employees indicated an interest in obtaining on
campus included:
Cholesterol(78%)
Blood Pressure(70%)
Body Composition assessment (66%)
Hearing (65%)
Diet Analysis (65%)
Skin Cancer (63%)
Osteoporosis (62%)
Vision (58%)
Blood Sugar/diabetes (57%)
Findings/Recommendations
 Health Behavior programs staff would like to see
offered included: weight management, stress
management, smoking cessation and time
management.
 Preferred time for program offerings was during
lunch.
 Employees indicated that they would be willing to
support the cost of activity programs, screenings,
and availability of immunizations
Group 4 - Existing Services and Programs
Charge
To compile a list of existing programs and campus
offerings related to health and wellness. From this list
of offerings, identify gaps and overlaps that might
exist in programs and services.
Summary Findings Group 4
 There are many services available on campus in the
area of health and wellness for both students and
staff but there are also gaps that exist.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Physical Health
 Students are negatively impacted academically by
physical health issues.
 Allergies, colds, flu, sore throats are the major
illnesses keeping students out of class, missing
exams or performing poorly on exams.
Recommendation
 Provide education that addresses health/wellness as
a developmental issue.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Nutrition
 Several factors have contributed to the increased
needs for nutrition assistance in colleges. Diseases
seen in 40-50 year old of the past are now seen in 2030 yr olds.
Recommendations
 Link nutrition services with changing students needs.
 Minnesota State Mankato should address cost issues
related to healthy nutrition choices when dining on
campus.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Health Education
 A campus needs assessment is conducted biannually using the National College Health
Assessment (ACHA, 2004) Survey tool. This tool
examined health indicators and academic impacts.
Recommendation:
 Align health education initiatives with programs that
demonstrate impact on academic performance.
Findings/Recommendations (Student)
Intellectual Health
 Academic coursework is taught in the area of health
and wellness through many departments and through
many programs.
Recommendations
 Share NCHA data across campus.
 Evaluate all campus health/ wellness initiatives.
Findings/Recommendations (Student)
Alcohol Use
 Alcohol use is a major contributing factor to illness,
poor academic performance, violence and vandalism
on and around college campuses.
Recommendations
 Continue to build campus and community
relationships that support evidence based
programming in the area of alcohol prevention.
Findings/Recommendations (Student)
Mental Health
 There is a direct correlation between mental health
wellness and academic performance.
Recommendation:
 Assess the best way to maximize availability of
counseling hours for students.
 Continue to offer psychiatric treatment, consultation
and emergency on-call treatment for students.
Findings/Recommendations (Students)
Projects and Campus Programs
 Service projects and campus programs provide a value
to the campus and the community. Students seek
colleges not just for academics but for opportunities to
connect with the campus and community.
Recommendation
 Continue offering programs and services that can
demonstrate a direct impact on retention,
connectedness and academic success.
Recommendations (Faculty/Staff and Students)
Spiritual Health Recommendations
 Determine availability of offerings like NA, AA
and Al-Anon to the campus community.
 Compile additional information about types of
offerings that would be beneficial
 Assess the needs of employees regarding
spiritual programming and services.
Environmental Health Recommendation:
 Provide more education in the areas of
environmental health and workplace safety.
Recommendations (Faculty/Staff)
Occupational Health Recommendation
 Provide services to assist employees in their
career and professional development needs.
Provide opportunities for all campus
employees to attend programs and
conferences.
Emotional Health Recommendation
 Administer an assessment to determine if
faculty and staff feel that the campus
environment is supportive of mental and
emotional health issues.
Recommendations (Faculty/Staff)
Physical Health Recommendation:
 Assess the wants and needs for additional
programming as well as effectiveness and
numbers of employees served.
Intellectual Health Recommendation:
 Developed a procedure for allowing all
employees to access funding for conferences
and continuing education.
Summary Recommendations
 Utilize the task force web site as a source of data
gathering, information sharing, and evidence based
programming.
 Provide a campus consortium on health and wellness
to carry out the recommendations of this task force.
 Expand the definition of wellness to include financial
wellness.
 Identify resources to educate both students and
employees on overall personal wellness to help with
retention, performance effectiveness, and costs.
 Initiate final step to eliminate smoking from all buildings
and entranceways.