College and University Health Websites Missing an Opportunity to Educate

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, November 21, 2011

Joshua Metlay and colleague Jane S. Jue, a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Penn, examined a representative sample of 426 websites designed to provide health information to college and university students. They found that less than 10 percent of the sites provided information about tobacco use, nutrition, and exercise. This dearth of information is a missed opportunity, given rising obesity rates and the health consequences of smoking, and the fact that smoking and obesity are preventable.