TABLE 2.

Descriptions of Survey Outcome Measures: Middle School and High School Students, Michigan, 2006–2008

Scale	Description	No. of Items	Internal Consistencya	Mean (SD)
Satisfaction with health	Measures perceptions of and beliefs about one's health; includes questions about the extent to which one feels full of energy, resists illness well, or is physically fit.	7	0.77	3.12 (0.57)
Physical discomfort	Measures both positive and negative somatic feelings and symptoms, asking individuals to identify how many days in the past 4 weeks they experienced various types of physical discomfort, such as cough, headache, or stomachache.	24	0.85	1.63 (0.42)
Emotional discomfort	Measures both positive and negative emotional feelings and symptoms, asking respondents how many days in the past 4 weeks they experienced various types of emotional discomfort, such as trouble sleeping, feeling depressed, or feeling nervous.	14	0.84	1.72 (0.57)
Physical activity	Measures participation in activities that promote physical fitness, such as walking or running.	5	0.69	3.07 (0.98)
Nutrition: healthy eating	Measures the frequency with which students drink milk and eat healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables.	4	0.64	3.44 (0.83)
Nutrition: unhealthy eating	Measures the frequency with which students eat unhealthy foods, such as fast food, salty foods, and sweets (this scale was reverse-coded so that higher scores reflected better nutrition).	3	0.72	3.38 (0.80)

^aCalculated using the Cronbach α.