Adolescent and Young Adult Health in the United States in the Past Decade: Little Improvement and Young Adults Remain Worse Off Than Adolescents

NAHIC has long been a trusted source of data on adolescent and young adult health. This 2014 review article, cited at least monthly as of 2023, has two aims:

(1) to examine trends in key indicators in outcomes, behaviors, and health care over the past decade for U.S. adolescents and young adults; and

(2) to compare U.S. adolescents and young adults on these indicators.

Guided by these aims, previous reviews, and national priorities, NAHIC examined trends in 53 areas and comparisons of adolescents and young adults in 42 areas, based on 21 sources of nationally representative data. Key findings, presented graphically below, include:

• Most health and health care indicators have changed little over the past decade.
• Young adults fared worse on about two-thirds of the indicators examined.
• Differences among sociodemographic subgroups persisted for both trends and current indicators.

View the article here:

Park MJ, Scott JT, Adams SH, Brindis CD, & Irwin CE, Jr. Adolescent and young adult health in the US in the past decade: Little improvement and young adults remain worse off. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2014; 55(1): 3-16.

These updates data presented in our 2008 review and our 2006 article on young adult health.

Click infographic to view full size image.