Setting Targets for
Objectives
Healthy Campus 2020 has one national target for each student and faculty/staff objective, but the national target
need not be the one that campuses will use for campus-level planning and tracking. Many college health
professionals struggle with setting achievable, realistic targets for outcome, performance, and process objectives.
The tips below focus primarily on setting targets for health outcomes and performance.
Using Peer Communities
You can set targets by comparing your campus with others like it. Year in college, age, major, co-curricular
activity, place of residence, race/ethnicity, and population size may define peer communities. The following may
be used to describe one’s peers: typical values for a specific objective, means or medians, or the variation among
peers.
Comparable data for campuses like yours may be found using the American College
Health Association’s National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) (see
www.acha-ncha.org ). Reference Group Reports posted at www.achancha.org/pubs_rpts.html will help you get started. Healthy Campus 2020 lists the data
sources you can use. Demographics of participating institutions include type,
location, size, setting, and Carnegie Classification.
Setting Targets for Objectives
Whenever possible, objectives should use current best scientific evidence and SMART (specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic, and time-bound) targets (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2009a). To
set targets, planners should consider the current status (baseline), seek stakeholder input on the desired level of
improvement, and assess what can realistically be accomplished based on the availability of financial resources
and people’s time and energy in order to have a good balance between adaptability to your population/setting and
fidelity to following prescribed protocols of evidence-based interventions (Veney & Kaluzny, 1998).
To help you and your stakeholders make a realistic assessment of what can be accomplished, determine: 1)
priority student audiences or segments of the student population (the ones with unique needs for improved social
and physical environments, or for whom there are special concerns); and, 2) priority behaviors (determinants of
health). Select stakeholders that allow you to use the Healthy People 2020 health-in-all-policies concept (HHS,
2009b). Include departments whose policies and activities may affect the health status and behavior of students
they serve.
Using Performance Measures
Performance measurement responds to the need to ensure efficient and effective use of resources, particularly
financial resources (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion, 1997). It links the use of resources with health improvements and the accountability of individual
partners. Performance measures can be incorporated within or based on Healthy Campus objectives. Please see
the following pages for a detailed description of setting performance measures.
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Healthy Campus 2020 – Setting Targets for Objectives Worksheet | 2
Setting Performance Measures Step by Step
The following examples are a composite of experiences of over a dozen institutions of higher education with a
combined 100+ years of experience in coalition building and application of evidence-based interventions. Not all
campuses will be able to follow the examples exactly; therefore examples should be used as needed.
Step
Ask
Example
1. Relate the
performance
measure to an
important national,
state, or local health
priority area.
What national, state,
or local health priority
will our plan address?
The university used here as an example has undertaken work
related to the national Healthy Campus 2020 objective to reduce
the proportion of students whose academic performance and
success and faculty and staff whose productivity are adversely
affected by stress, the first of the top five health impediments to
academic performance.
2. Measure a result
that can be achieved
in five years or less.
How will we measure our
progress?
Can a change be
measured in five years or
less?
The university has identified an achievable result that is linked
scientifically to the Healthy Campus 2020 Academic
Impediments topic area objective:
Who are all the potential
partners that have a stake
in this health issue?
Target partners are essentially all students, faculty, and staff, plus
members of the community surrounding the campus. The strategic
planning process mobilized partners with the Healthy People 2020
MAP-IT* (HHS, n.d.) process; interdepartmental “health-in-allpolicies” determinants of health and ecological approaches; and
use of evidence-based activities.
3. Ensure that the
result is meaningful
to a wide audience
of partners.
AI 1.1 - Reduce the proportion of students who reported that
their academic performance was adversely affected in the past 12
months by stress.
Eleven years earlier the university president established an
advisory committee and coalition. The Advisory Committee on
Health and Wellness has six members with expertise in areas
related to health promotion and disease prevention. The Campus
Community Coalition for Health and Wellness was established
to connect and collaborate with the campus community to create
sustained healthier social and physical environments. A Steering
Committee is charged with the prioritization and development of
an action plan to address the leading health and wellness issues
that affect academic performance, success, and productivity. The
Steering Committee has seven Priority Action Groups to address
the 11 Healthy Campus 2020 topic areas.
See the organization chart on page seven.
The Mental Health Priority Action Group created the Stress
Committee. Its members met monthly for over a year to collect
data on student, and faculty and staff stress and develop a
comprehensive strategic plan.
* MAP-IT: Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track
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Healthy Campus 2020 – Setting Targets for Objectives Worksheet | 3
4. Define the strategy
that will be used to
reach a result.
What strategies will be
effective for addressing
this health issue?
What does your review of
evidence-based literature
tell you about
interventions that 1)
indicate the proportion in
each priority audience
may change behavior or
health status and 2)
balance fidelity and
adaptation to your
campus environment?
The university used the Healthy People 2020
MAP-IT approach and selected three strategies:
1) Assess needs and assets (resources) of the campus community
to determine key stressors, underlying issues of stress, and, if
more realistic based on resource, priority student and
faculty/staff groups for interventions.
2) Find evidence-based strategies and assess the balance of
adaptability to the campus environment
and ability to maintain fidelity to the strategies,
3) Adapt, implement and track evidence-based policies and
interventions to address health issues in relation to social and
physical environment.
Do we have the fiscal and
human resources to
implement these
strategies?
What do cost-benefit,
cost-effectiveness, and
cost-utility analysis of
strategies tell you about
best strategies to use for
your population and
priority audiences?
5. Define the
accountable entities.
Who is responsible for
implementing the
different activities in
each strategy?
The accountable entities depend on the strategy used to achieve
results and the way in which a particular campus is organized. A
key to the effectiveness of the strategic planning process
reported here is that the Stress Committee was involved during
all stages of the process from data collection, interpretation of
data, development of the intervention strategies and tracking.
The members informed and received feedback from the Campus
Community Coalition quarterly.
The Steering Committee members, assisted by the university’s
Institutional Research and Planning (IRP) office, gathered and
analyzed focus group and ACHA-NCHA data. Additionally, the
committee members and IRP developed and implemented a
student stressor inventory. The committee reported results to the
Advisory Committee, Campus Community Coalition, faculty,
staff, student and the community. They also used health
communication, social marketing, and health marketing (U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, n.d.), plus a variety of health promotion
theories to move the campus community to support the
university efforts.
The Advisory Committee looked for evidence-based strategies
to address student stress at four determinants of health levels of
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Healthy Campus 2020 – Setting Targets for Objectives Worksheet | 4
intervention (policymaking, social (social and physical factors),
health services, and individual. For these proposals, it started by
using the interventions listed in Healthy People 2020’s
Educational and Community Based Programs and Mental Health
topic areas and by using Healthy People 2020 “Planning
Resources.”
6. Draft measures
that meet statistical
requirements for
validity and
reliability and have
an existing source of
data.
What is our objective?
Is it specific, measurable,
achievable, realist, and
time-phased (SMART)?
Is there an existing data
source for our measure?
In consultation with IRP the Steering Committee drafted
measures that are statistically sound, SMART, and maximize
fidelity to evidence-based strategies. The following targets were
selected.
Assessment results found four underlying causes of stress that
were significantly associated with several groups of students.
Overall, 32% of the students’ academics were adversely affected
by stress. The underlying causes and the percent of the entire
student body affected by them were: sleep difficulties (47%),
depression (23%), finances (17%) and relationship difficulties
(14%). Additional findings helped to clarify underlying causes
significantly related to specific priority groups of students by
residence, major, use of services, etc.
The university’s Human Resource Department conducted an
assessment of health risks of faculty and staff. One of the
findings was that 51% said they were less productive at work as
a result of stress. Forty-four percent said they had gained weight
in their current job and 32% said that work related stress
contributed to their weight gain (American Psychological
Association Practice Organization, 2010). Additional findings
clarified priority faculty/staff groups by faculty; administrative
academic, administrative non-academic, and support staff.
Four sets of evidence-based strategies for students
and one for faculty and staff were developed. Based
on human and fiscal resources available, only two
of these strategies were implemented first. The underlying
cause(s) of stress, priority audiences, accountable entities, and
evidence-based strategies implemented include:
Cause(s) of Stress: sleep, finances, depression, relationship
difficulties
Priority Audience: students in residence halls
Accountable Entities: resident hall advisors and faculty
teaching freshmen courses
Strategies Implemented: A resource smart phone app similar to
those would be developed for Healthy People 2020’s Leading
Health Indicator apps. The app covers physical, social,
emotional, environmental spiritual intellectual, financial, and
occupational wellness topics. It provides phone numbers,
websites, office locations, and web links to consumer
information. All first year/ transfer students would receive the
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Healthy Campus 2020 – Setting Targets for Objectives Worksheet | 5
app. Resident advisors and professors teaching freshmen would
be trained on how to use the app, the social determinants of
health, and ecological model. Theory- and evidence-based
actions, policies, interventions, health communication, and social
marketing presentations in halls would be additional strategies.
Cause(s) of Stress: depression
Priority Audience: student patients/consumer
Accountable Entities: Student Health and Counseling Services
(SHCS)
Strategies Implemented: Policies would include using new
procedure manual guidelines for assessing depression, adding
depression screening questions to patient intake forms, and
streamlining collaboration between clinical and counseling staff.
The university’s performance measure is to “in three years
reduce to 30.1% the proportion of all students who report
academics were adversely affected by stress.” (baseline: 32%,
5.9% improvement) (ACHA-NCHA, Spring 2010)
Baselines and targets for the strategies implemented for the
following priority audiences are:
Sleep, Finances, Depression, Relationship Difficulties:
Students in residence halls (10%*)
 37% to 31%
 16.2% improvement
Depression: Student patients/consumers of SHCS (40%*)
 34% to 33%
 2.9% improvement
Stress and Depression: Students in residence halls and use
SHCS (10%*)
 37% to 30%
 18.9% improvement
Non-priority student audience (40%*)
 27.5% to 27%
 1.8% improvement
* Proportion of entire student population
NOTE: Higher percent improvement for priority audiences than
overall population results from targeted interventions that are
adapted to the campus social and physical environment with
fidelity to evidence-based protocols, greater intensity of effort
due to targeted interventions, and more financial and human
resources directed to those audiences.
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Healthy Campus 2020 – Setting Targets for Objectives Worksheet | 6
Sample Organization Chart
Advisory Committee on Campus Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Strategies: A public advisory
committee involved in planning Healthy Campus. The six committee members are prominent campus and
community experts in their fields, tapped to share their expertise in areas related to health promotion and disease
prevention, including health policy, state and local public health, business, outcomes research, health economics,
health communication, special populations, biostatistics, international health, health behaviors, environmental
health, health systems, and epidemiology. These individuals serve in a variety of professional settings, including
public, private, foundation, community-based, and academic organizations.
Campus Community Coalition on Health and Wellness: Key campus and local community stakeholders who
develop and monitor a strategic plan. The intersectoral group applies a health-in-all-policies concept that includes
students, faculty, and staff representing academic, housing, human resources, campus safety, and engineering
departments, plus local business, city and county leaders.
Steering Committee: A committee with approximately 60 student, faculty, and staff members. It is charged with
the prioritization and development of an action plan to address the leading health and wellness issues that affect
academic performance and success.
Institutional Research and Planning Office: The office collects, aggregates, statistically analyzes, and reports
data to support short- and long-range planning, budget and enrollment management, program review, and
assessment. The office provides services to enable campus users to conduct their own data collection and
statistical analysis and serves as the operational lead for the university in fiscal management, space management,
and information technology support.
Priority Action Groups: Groups of 8–12 members (often Steering Committee members) charged with assessing,
planning, implementing and tracking interventions for a single issue.
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Healthy Campus 2020 – Setting Targets for Objectives Worksheet | 7
References:
American Psychological Association Practice Organization. (2010). Psychologically healthy workplace program fact sheet: By the
numbers. Retrieved from http://www.phwa.org/dl/2010phwp_fact_sheet.pdf. Accessed on June 25, 2012.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2009a). Tenth meeting: March 26, 2009: Secretary’s Advisory Committee on
National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020. Retrieved from
http://healthypeople.gov/2020/about/advisory/FACA10Minutes.aspx?page=3
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2009b). Fifteenth meeting: September 17-18, 2009: Secretary’s Advisory Committee on
National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020. Retrieved from
http://healthypeople.gov/2020/about/advisory/FACA15Minutes.aspx
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Healthy People 2020: Implementing Healthy People
2020 – MAP-IT: A guide to using Healthy People 2020 in your community. Retrieved from
http://healthypeople.gov/2020/implementing/default.aspx. Accessed on June 25, 2012.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Gateway to health communication &
social marketing practice. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication. Accessed on June 25, 2012.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (1997). Winter 1997 prevention
report: Improving the nation's health with performance measurement. Retrieved from
http://odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov/pubs/prevrpt/archives/97winfoc.HTM
Veney, James., A. Kaluzny. Evaluation & Decision Making for Health Services. Health Administration Press, Chicago.
1998. p 379-405.
Adapted from material in the public domain:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (n.d.). Healthy People 2020 Program
Planning Tools. Retrieved June 2012, from http://www.healthypeople.gov.
Original source:
Public Health Foundation, under contract with the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of Public Health and
Science, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2002, February). Healthy People 2010 Toolkit: A Field Guide to Health
Planning (pp. 93-98). Washington, DC: Public Health Foundation.
1362 Mellon Road, Suite 180
Hanover, MD 21076
(410) 859-1500
healthycampus2020@acha.org
www.acha.org/healthycampus
June 2012
American College Health Association | www.acha.org/healthycampus