Managing chronic conditions in college: Findings from prompted health incidents diaries.

Objective: This pilot study assessed an electronic health diary method designed to collect data about critical health incidents experienced by college students who have chronic health conditions.

Participants: Nine university students with chronic medical conditions were recruited to complete a series of e-mail-based surveys, sent once every 3 days across the fall 2014 semester.

Methods: In each survey, participants described a health-related incident that occurred within the past day and cited resources that helped or could have helped in that situation. They completed follow-up interviews and ranked the importance of cited resources.

Results: The diary completion rate was 78.3% (141/180). Most frequently affected management areas were activities (61.3%), monitoring (34.9%), and problem-solving (34.3%). Resources considered helpful included situational knowledge, campus health professionals, peer support, and relaxation opportunities.

Conclusions: Prompted health incidents diary method achieved a high completion rate and provided data that could be useful for college health researchers and practitioners.