ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes typical health hazards of adolescence, such as eating disorders, suicidal and risky sexual behavior, as well as patterns of substance abuse. Although adolescents are comparably healthy and bear a fairly low risk of mortality in relation to adults, they nevertheless have experience with diseases and hospitalization. Seventy-seven percent of all adolescents stated that they had made use of ambulatory health care services for routine care. Most health surveys on the epidemiology of chronic illnesses fail to provide separate data for adolescents. Adolescents are either lumped together with children or divided into groups including young children and young adults. Depressive moods and depressive symptoms are common in adolescents, but prevalence figures largely vary, ranging from 20% to more than 50%. Whereas obesity is a health problem affecting the overall population of the United States, bulimia and anorexia nervosa are conditions seen primarily in adolescence and young adulthood, almost exclusively affecting females.
