An evaluation of the health knowledge of freshmen attending state supported colleges and universities in the state of Mississippi

The purpose of this study was to assess the health knowledge of freshmen students attending state supported colleges and universities in the state of Mississippi.

The data were collected using the Fast Tyson Health Knowledge Test, Forms A and B. This test consisted of 100 multiple choice items covering 10 health content areas: Personal Health, Exercise/ Relaxation/Sleep, Nutrition/Diet, Consumer Health, Contemporary Health Problems, Tobacco/Alcohol/Drugs, Safety/First Aid, Diseases, Mental Health and Human Sexuality. Form B was used as the pre-test instrument and Form A was used as the post-test instrument.

The population consisted of 1250 freshman students attending 7 of the 8 state supported colleges and universities in the state of Mississippi. 669 subjects participated in the pre-test and the remaining 581 participated in the post-test. The significance of results was determined by the F-test and Neuman-Keuls procedure.

The results of the study indicated weakness in eight of the ten content areas; only in the areas of Consumer Health and Safety/ First Aid did participants show moderate strength.

The major findings of the study were that there were significant differences in health knowledge mean scores among ethnic groups, among different age groups, between male and female subjects, between married and non-married subjects, among the different institutions, between residents and non-residents of the state of Mississippi, between subjects who had previously completed a health course and those who had not, and between pre-test and post-test scores.

As a result of this study the following conclusions were drawn:

1. Participation in health courses in Mississippi colleges and universities does improve student health knowledge.

2. Major areas of strength and weakness in health knowledge were identified through the use of the Fast-Tyson Health Knowledge Test.

3. Differences exist in the test performance of the participating institutions.