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Data & Dashboards

Northwestern University is committed to advancing the health of all students and the campus community. Therefore, assessing college health factors that impact student academic performance, retention, and campus life are key in the development of effective health-related prevention and intervention programs for students.

To support this commitment, we are providing the community with access to our most frequently asked questions about data surrounding health behaviors among our Undergraduate student population. We are currently in the process of analyzing multiple years’ worth of health behavior data and creating visually pleasing and easily understandable dashboards to upload to this site.

The data will be organized by the Eight Dimensions of Wellness and uploaded to this website as it becomes available. Because the data is collected through various health behavior surveys, we are providing a brief summary of each survey, when it was administered, and the sample size.

Dashboards focusing on alcohol and other substance use are available on the Alcohol & Other Drugs Resources website.

Note: These dashboards are best viewed on a desktop computer or device with a large screen and in full-screen mode.

National College Health Assessment II (NCHA II)

The National College Health Assessment II is a nationally recognized research survey that collects data on students’ health habits, behaviors, and perceptions. While Northwestern administers this survey every few years, the data currently presented on this website does not include any data from our NCHA II surveys. Northwestern most recently administered the NCHA II in Spring of 2019 with 767 undergraduate students responding to at least part of the survey.

Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership

The purpose of the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) is to examine the influences of higher
education on college student leadership development. The study also directs significant attention to the
examination of experiences during college and their influences on leadership-related outcomes (e.g., resiliency, hope, and, social perspective-taking).

Healthy Minds Study

The Healthy Minds Study (HMS) is an annual survey-based study examining mental health and related issues (depression, anxiety, substance use, etc.) and service utilization among college students. Since its national launch in 2007, HMS has been fielded at over 150 college and university campuses across the U.S., with over 150,000 survey respondents.

Looking for more?

If you are looking for additional information not presented on this website, or clarification on the data presented, please contact Health Promotion and Wellness at hpaw@northwestern.edu