Tucson News NowAnnual survey tracks UA student health and wellness

Every year the University of Arizona does its Health and Wellness survey. The 2012 survey is being administered right now.

The survey asks students everything from how often they exercise, to how often they use certain drugs. As the habits of students evolve, so too does the survey.

Students say there is a lot of pressure in college

"I definitely stock up on coffee, Rock Star, Monster," said UA freshman Claire Becerra. "You have to keep going in that pattern, and then there's Adderall and I guess cocaine, it might just be the next step."

There is pressure to study, and pressure to party.

"Obviously college is about trying things once, the good things twice. everyone knows that," said Michael Penn, a senior at UA.

Campus Health Services tries to track what students are trying through its annual Health and Wellness survey, which reaches between 1,200 and 3,000 students.

"You don't have to survey the entire population to get an accurate result," said Lynn Reyes, a alcohol and other drug prevention specialist at UA. "We know that from statistics and evaluation science."

In the 2011 survey, two and a half percent, or nearly one thousand students said they used cocaine in the last 30 days.

"I feel like it might be a little low," said Amber Underdown, a UA freshman. "Like people are just saying they aren't using cocaine when they really are because I know a lot of people that actually use cocaine."

But it's a drug used to study, not party, that students say is becoming more and more common.

"Adderall is much more common, Ritalin is much more common. That's the black market here, that's what I'd be more focused on to be honest," Penn said.

It wasn't until 2009 that the Health and Wellness survey started asking students whether they use Ritalin, Adderall or Concerta, without being prescribed by a doctor.

"I think it gets to the point where you're doing it to stay ahead and you're doing it to stay even with your competition," said Corey Fein, a UA senior. "People assume, 'I don't take Adderall, now I'm not going to do as well on the test."

In the last survey, seven percent of students said they've used one of the three, but some students say usage is more common than that.

"Perception is not, it doesn't seem to be correlated with the scientific numbers," Reyes said.

The survey is a fill in the bubble type survey. Researchers say they do not ask students 'why' they use what they do because qualitative data is too difficult to quantify.

Copyright 2012 KOLD. All rights reserved.