Better College Care Urged for Chronic Illness

Most colleges say they can manage care for students with long-term medical conditions, a new study finds. But they often don’t know who those students are. About 20% of college students have a chronic (long-term) condition. The new study was based on a survey. It included medical directors for 200 U.S. colleges. They were chosen to represent all 4-year colleges. About 83% of the colleges said they could manage a student’s asthma. About 69% said they could manage depression. Just over half thought they could manage diabetes. But only 42% had a system in place to find out which students had these conditions. About 31% of the colleges reviewed medical records and created registries of students with chronic conditions. Depending on the condition, up to 25% of schools contacted new students with these conditions to schedule an appointment.