Creation of a sexual risk index from the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) III to compare nontraditional and traditional student sexual risk

Abstract

Objective To examine the utility of a novel sexual risk index (SRI) to better use National College Health Assessment (NCHA) sexual health-related questions. Methods The first phase included discussions, testing, and recoding of the initial set of items. In the second phase, a correlation analysis was run; items were systematically removed to achieve a Cronbach’s alpha of .714. Results All currently enrolled students in Spring 2020 at medium-sized, 4-year public university in Florida were recruited (n = 4,850) for the NCHA. Of the 441 total respondents, 223 students were included in the SRI analyses. Most had very low SRI scores, indicating few sexual risks. Nontraditional students were half as likely to experience academic challenges as compared to traditional students (TS; OR = .487, p = .033), while increasing SRI scores (OR = 1.182, p = .022) and decreasing GPA scores (OR = −1.975, p < .001) were associated with an increased likelihood of self-reporting academic challenges. Conclusions Results suggest high utility and reliability of the SRI. The use of the SRI provides a better overall picture of sexual risk-taking through a score rather than comparison of individual NCHA items.