The growing trend of online health assessment has come to UNM.
Students can now log on to Web sites such as PingMyHealth.org and the Electronic Checkup To Go, or E-CHUG, at Unm.edu/~cosap.
"The E-CHUG is an excellent online alcohol assessment tool that had its beginnings here at COSAP," said Jill Anne Yeagley, Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention program manager.
Yeagley said the PingMyHealth assessment measures alcohol consumption and evaluates other health factors for students. PingMyHealth is free for students, and users have the chance to win an iPod or $150.
Yeagley said the E-CHUG is aimed at changing students' drinking habits and is based on motivational advancement therapy.
The E-CHUG also shows students how much they are spending on alcohol over time. It asks students how much they spend on alcohol per week and then asks what their monthly spending limit is.
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"The purpose of E-CHUG is to give feedback in a nonjudgmental fashion that is very specific to that person's drinking habits and history," Yeagley said.
The E-CHUG started out as a pencil-and-paper assessment, said John Steiner, a health educator at COSAP.
"A graduate student that used to work at COSAP took the assessment to San Diego State University, and they decided to make it an online tool," he said.
Steiner said several hundred schools now pay a fee to SDSU to provide the E-CHUG on their Web sites. COSAP does not have to pay to use the program because the original assessment was designed at UNM, he said.
"We hope that students who become aware of their drinking habits and how they affect their life as a student will make positive changes," Yeagley said.
The results of the E-CHUG study showed that females stayed at baseline levels of alcohol consumption, while males who participated reported lower drinking levels over time, she said.
"The average level went down from 14.23 drinks per week to 5.9 drinks per week over the course of the study," Yeagley said.
She said females only reported having three drinks per week, and because of this low baseline, the results did not show a significant change in the drinking habits of females.
Sophomore Peggy Sue Azua said she took both online evaluations and found the UNM-sponsored one less helpful.
"I think the PingMyHealth assessment was more accurate and positive than the E-CHUG," she said.
The feedback from PingMyHealth was more constructive, Azua said. She took the E-CHUG last year and this year, and the feedback was the same both times.
Yeagley said E-CHUG is less expansive but provides a more in-depth analysis than PingMyHealth.
"Alcohol is the most widely used and abused, and that is why the E-CHUG mainly targets drinking," Yeagley said. "I think, with an instrument like the E-CHUG, if you try and get into several different drugs or items you really dilute it."
