University of Idaho

HS 490 Health Promotion

Interventions
Assignment 2

Directions

The following pages guide you on each step of this assignment. You will look for
intervention resources on web sites, class readings, class notes and peer reviewed
journals (Research Notes 1-3). You will pull it all together and create an evidence
based plan based on your findings (Pulling it All Together) and include references,
APA format. You may type directly on these pages but it is not required. I put the
assignment in boxes to make it easier to follow but it may be easier for you to create
a word document with all the assignment components.

Total Point Value- 100 points- 20% of course grade

• Website Review -15 points

• Intervention Research Readings- 15 points
• Research Articles-Peer Reviewed 30 points
• Pulling it All Together- 35 points

Please submit in this in hard copy in class and also on Bblearn. Due April 17th
at the beginning of class.

Professor Helen Brown- Spring 2018

[Type here]
Name:

Health Topic, Target (can be a primary and secondary target) and Location (must be clearly defined):

NAME: #1 Intervention Website Review- 15 pts.

Review a website with intervention strategies related to your topic. Only 1 is required, recommend you look at
more than one for greater learning.
Website and Link: https://www.cdc.gov/family/college/
APA citation of website: (Prevention, 2016)

General Purpose of the Website

The general purpose was to provide tips for incoming or current students to follow so that they may safe and
healthy during their time in school
What did you learn about effective interventions for your topic? Answer the questions below and add
additional comments.

What intervention tools and resources are available? What are the top recommended interventions? Is there an
evidence base for the recommended interventions? (Make sure the website is useful to your topic).

Tools and resources relating directly to my topic were quite minimal; there was a link to internal information about
coping with stress in addition to more links to information on suicide prevention and anxiety disorders. The tips
that the page gave were to stay physically active, eat a balanced diet, prevent sexually transmitted diseases, keep
up on vaccinations, avoid harmful substances, and know help number for sexual violence in addition to maintaining
mental health. Although some of the correlations may be weak or their effects indirect, there is a significant
evidence base for most of the interventions listed as they relate to stress.

Critical thinking and relation to your health promotion topic

What did you learn from the website that you can apply to your project? Organize by answering # 1-3 below:

1) Intervention activities that are appropriate for your project, 2) Useful tools and resources, including health
education/promotion resources; 3) Other resources- give web links for at least two other helpful resources the
web page directed you to and write 1-2 sentences about what you was helpful about each site.

1) Interventions that seem to be the most pertinent to my topic are staying physically active, getting enough sleep,
and balancing diet.

2) Each tip gives a link to the CDC’s information on other webpages within the site that give recommendations and
information about the topics and interventions it is listing.

3) https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pub/coping_with_stress_tips.html

This page gives tips on how to more specifically cope with stress as well as how other factors (including those listed
on the original page) relate to stress. It is also very explicit about the fact that seeking further help could be
necessary and that help is available if needed.

https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/sleep_hygiene.html

This gives very simple yet effective tips on how to improve sleep habits.
 #2 Intervention Research Readings- 15 pts.
General Intervention Considerations- Answer the following using lectures and readings. 1 paragraph for each.

1. The Social Cognitive Theory is the health behavior theory that seems most in line with my project. It will be
important as it encourages self-efficacy, behavioral capability, expectation & expectancies, self-control, and
emotional coping ability, all of which are skills that would serve students well. The goal of the chosen
intervention is that the skills and techniques taught to them will continued to be used long after the actual
intervention has concluded so that they have the ability keep their stress levels low throughout their time in
school.

2. Change on the Community Level would be the most desired and practical for this intervention. Being able to
give students the mental tools they need to manage their stress levels and keep them from adversely
affecting their academic performance as well as their health is very valuable. Also, being able to extend this
type of intervention to a greater amount of the student population would prove very beneficial.

3. Predisposing: one of the major factors I discovered in assessment was that many of the students reporting
higher than average stress levels were also experiencing sleep difficulties. Financial issues were also a
significant finding in my review of UI specific data. Enabling: as far as enabling factors go, there is a number
of useful resources already in place on campus to aid in stress reduction among students. Reinforcing: there
are factors that certainly would reinforce reduced stress among students but perhaps not as many as there
should be.
 #3 RESEARCH ARTICLES– PEER REVEIWED- 1 of 3
3 peer reviewed research articles that describe interventions are required. 1 can be a review
article. You do not need to use this box format, you can use a word doc and include the
headings below. 10 pt. each -30 pt. total
APA Citation of article

(Oman, Shapiro, Thoresen, Plante, & Flinders, 2008)

Participants or population reached

Undergraduate university students

Describe the intervention and its effectiveness

• Recruited students were assigned into one of two groups: Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction, Easwaran’s
Eight Point Program. The hypothesis was that there would not be a statistically significant difference
between the outcomes of the two groups. The most interesting aspect of this study was that they were
comparing the two since they were both classified as meditation management of stress techniques. The
variables they were primarily observing were perceived stress, rumination, forgiveness of others, and hope.

• The intervention yielded reductions in stress, increases in forgiveness, and trends toward reduced
rumination. The authors did state that further researchers should explore the mechanisms, sustainability,
and generalizability of the effects and how benefits of similar programs can be made more appropriate and
effective for students

• The primary limitations of the study were that the test groups may not accurately reflect the general
university population, small sample size, differences in treatment effect associated with covariates, absence
of an active control group treatment, and absence of physiological measures of stress.

Critical thinking and relation to your project

• The primary thing I learned from this intervention as it relates to my project is that meditation-based
interventions show promise in terms of stress reduction. However, limited general population participation
is something that I am keeping in mind as the trend of primarily younger women students participating in
these types of interventions has noted in this as well as many other studies.

• The two biggest modifications that would need to be made to this intervention type to make it viable for
my project would be to make it more appealing to the general student population so as to recruit a more
well-rounded sample as well as implement some sort of follow up protocol to assess if the skill attained with
these interventions are retained over time.
 #3 RESEARCH ARTICLES– PEER REVEIWED- 2 of 3

APA Citation

(Lynch, Gander, Kohls, Kudielka, & Walach, 2011)

Participants or population reached

University student populati0n

Describe the intervention and its effectiveness

• Participants were assigned into either the control or Mindfulness-based Coping with University Life Program
and had both psychological and physiological measures taken during the study.

• The MBCUL shows significant reductions in negative mood and seems very easy to implement as well.

• The primary conclusions are the MBCUL shows promise as a stress reduction intervention but may need
further research. It was noted that the physiological measures may be better measured based on the
response to a specific stress test. The primary limitation of this study was the small sample size.

Critical thinking and relation to your project

• The MBCUL could easily be implemented at this university; it would be a time and cost-efficient intervention
that would promote self-efficacy among participants. As with other interventions, it would need to be
taken into consideration that appeal to the general student population would be important to create so as
to acquire a good sample.
 #3 RESEARCH ARTICLES– PEER REVEIWED 3 of 3

APA Citation

(Regehr, Glancy, & Pitts, 2013)

Participants or population reached

Since this was a review, it encompassed undergraduate, graduate, medical, law, and assorted other students

Critical thinking and relation to your project

• What did you learn from this research/intervention that can be applied to you project?

• There appears to be strong support for cognitive, behavioral, and mindfulness-based approaches to stress
reduction. There also appears to be significant effects on the reduction of anxiety, depression, and cortisol
response.

Pulling it All Together- 35 pts.

1. Healthy Campus 2020: Reduce the proportion of students who report that their academic performance
was adversely affected by stress in the last 12 months by 10%

2. Deciding on strategies for interventions (must be appropriate for target(s). 8 pt. each- 24 pts.

Based on the intervention activities discussed in class (see ppt.) and the findings of the literature, select
the 3 most important types of interventions for your project and list 4-5 strategies for each strategy.
These strategies need to be related to evidence based practices. Add enough information about the
intervention strategies selected that it is clear what the intervention will accomplish.

• Behavior modification activities

o Small group meetings on a weekly basis may be an effective means of helping students in
their reduction of stress. Something akin to a support group where someone (in this case,
a peer health educator or similarly trained professional) leads the group and gets them to
open up about their stressful experiences as they relate to academics and offering their
insight could be an effective strategy

o Teaching of meditation-based techniques similar to the studies that I found would be a

way of promoting the self-efficacy of students as well as mindfulness which would be very
useful to students

o Teaching of cognitive techniques much like the meditation-based techniques would

provide students a useful tool for stress reduction. This strategy seems most related to
betterment in academic performance as these techniques would provide ways of altering
their thinking rather than their perceptions

o Though simple, providing information on how to modify behaviors related to stress levels
would be very useful. Keeping the information simple and concise, much as the CDC
 resource I reviewed did, would likely be the best way to engage students in the
information

• Individual interventions

o The implementation of a peer mentor program related to stress management could be a

very useful strategy. While the mentor would not be counseling students, they would be
there to lend an ear and perhaps share their experience of similar situations or times in
their life.

o While it is already a very present and well promoted resource, reference to the
Counselling and Testing Center would be a very effective strategy for assisting people in
their stress management. The CTC provides an opportunity for students to try a
counseling style of intervention which may be best for some people if other interventions
are not as effective for them

• Community awareness

o Making academic advisors aware of the impacts of stress on their students would go a
long way toward reducing stress; keeping in mind what impacts academic decisions would
have on people could massively change what advisors recommend to students

o Making faculty aware of the impacts of stress on students would also be a very useful
strategy for reducing stress. Making faculty aware using things like workshops or
presentations at meetings would be a useful way to accomplish this

o Though it seems simple and may already be in practice to some extent, increasing
awareness of on-campus resources would certainly be useful. Even if the increase came in
the way of having more signage in more heavily trafficked areas and buildings like
residence halls, it would accomplish this goal

o More frequent events relating to de-stressing would most certainly increase awareness as
well as draw people in. While there are currently events held to do this, their frequency
may contribute to the lesser awareness of resources and information available to
students

3. Potential for Success- 10 pts (critical thinking questions)

a.) Through the increase of faculty and advisor awareness of the effects of stress on students and their
academic performance as well as health, some predisposing factors could be lessened in their extent;
if their was an emphasis on making classes and schedules with consideration for the individual’s
needs and constraints, stress would become lessened for the students. Through enabling factors
such as increased awareness and providing of more information and resources for help and
information, the framework for students to keep their stress levels low will be in place. Lastly, the
biggest reinforcing factor in students’ stress management endeavors would be the shift in
community awareness of the problem and the social support for it.

b.) The sustainability of these types of interventions would be good, especially if things like Vandal
Health and the CTC were involved. With professionals standing behind these kinds of interventions,
there is a high likelihood that it would continue if the overall level of student stress was reduced.
Works Cited
Lynch, S., Gander, M.-L., Kohls, N., Kudielka, B., & Walach, H. (2011). Mindfulness-based coping with university life: A
non-randomized wait-list-controlled pilot evaluation. Stress And Health, 365-375.

Oman, D., Shapiro, S., Thoresen, C., Plante, T., & Flinders, T. (2008). Meditation lowers stress and supports
forgiveness among college students: A randomized controlled trial. Journal Of American Health.

Prevention, C. f. (2016, August 9). College Health and Safety. Retrieved from CDC.gov:
https://www.cdc.gov/family/college/

Regehr, C., Glancy, D., & Pitts, A. (2013). Intervention to reduce stress in univerity studetns: A review and meta-
analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 1-11.