Report: The Case for Improving Adolescent Health: Helping Prepare Adolescents for a Healthy Future
National Foundation for Infectious Diseases; Pfizer Inc.
December 2013

Excerpt for Media Release http://www.multivu.com/players/English/60287-nfid-myteenhealth-survey/
The Case for Improving Adolescent Health demonstrates the need for increased attention to adolescent preventive healthcare in the US and emphasizes the role(s) that parents, teens, providers, and adults who influence teens (coaches, youth leaders, school professionals) can play to help make improvements. From the gaps in adolescent-focused programs to the preventive health barriers that exist, The Case for Improving Adolescent Health shows how behaviors and actions may affect teen health.

…In addition to serving as a checkpoint for modifiable health risk behaviors, annual checkups can help ensure that teens are getting recommended health screenings and are immunized according to recommendations. They can also provide an opportunity for confidential health discussions. Modifiable behaviors, such as lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, and tobacco and alcohol use are responsible for much chronic disease.1 Further, not all adolescents are getting vaccinated as recommended,2 leaving them potentially vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases such as meningococcal meningitis, whooping cough, influenza, and infection with human papillomavirus (HPV).

Adolescent Health Risks Snapshot
Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Vaccines administered during the adolescent years can be an important determinant of future health. Four in 10 teens surveyed3 and just over three in 10 parents surveyed4 believe that vaccines are not as important for teens as for babies. However, school-aged children have the highest flu infection rates;5 adolescents 16 to 21 years, along with infants less than one year, have higher rates of meningococcal disease than other age groups;6 and HPV prevalence is estimated to be as high as 64 percent in adolescent girls.7