MSU Faculty & students research campus vaping, energy drink uses
Morehead State University faculty and student researchers are conducting a hands-on research project better to understand vaping and energy drink consumption among college students.
The project was born out of a health symposium hosted by the Area Health Education Center (AHEC), where Assistant Professor of Health & Wellness Dr. Elizabeth Ash (2007, 2009) and Assistant Professor of Kinesiology Dr. Jarrod Plank (2019) attended a presentation on regional vaping habits.
Recognizing the relevance of this issue to their campus, they decided to investigate it further. Additionally, discussions with fellow health professionals led them to expand their research to include energy drink consumption, another growing concern among college students.
“To establish prevalence values for awareness is our main objective, but an equally important goal is involving undergraduate students in scholarship,” said Plank. “Anytime students put forth the initiative to be involved in scholarship, it is a win not only for faculty and students involved, but ultimately the culture of the university.”
During the Fall 2024 semester, the research team visited over 20 First Year Seminar (FYS) courses, ensuring a broad participant pool and avoiding duplicate responses. Through these surveys, they successfully collected data from more than 400 freshmen, providing a substantial sample size for their analysis.
“We are still in the midst of putting together the results,” Grace Stubblefield (senior, health promotion/psychology double major, Boyd County) said. “I am confident that both energy drink consumption as well as vaping are affecting our campus to a large degree.”
This research is an opportunity for students involved in the project to contribute to a significant health initiative and develop skills that will benefit them in their careers.
Alexis Morrison (senior, exercise science major, Greenville, Ohio), expressed her motivation behind the project.
“I hope to accomplish this research to show people the statistics as well as facts,” Morrison said. “Vaping and energy drinks can be very hard on the body. I want to be able to show people more facts that go deeper than just freshman college students.”
Ash hopes the findings will help inform future health initiatives on campus.
“A personal goal of mine is to look into grant opportunities to bring educational opportunities to our campus, that can help our students to be more informed on these two substances and give them the opportunity to critically evaluate these products prior to their use,” she said. “Or if they currently use these substances, to be able to critically assess the impact to their overall health and make a decision that is best for them and their health.”
For more information, contact Ash at e.ash@moreheadstate.edu or 606-783-2461 or Plank at jtplank@moreheadstate.edu.
You can also contact Health, Kinesiology, Imaging & Psychological Sciences at kh@moreheadstate.edu or 606-783-2180.
Photo, left to right: Grace Stubblefield, Alexis Morrison, Dr. Jarrod Plank, and Dr. Elizabeth Ash
