The Center for the Advancement of Health's blog notes this recently published longitudinal study on teen health:
Diet, inactivity, obesity, health care access, substance use, and reproductive health worsened with age. Perceived health, mental health, and exposure to violence improved with age. On most health indicators, white and Asian subjects were at lowest and Native American subjects at highest risk. Although white subjects had more favorable health in adolescence, they experienced greatest declines by young adulthood. No single race/ethnic group consistently leads or falters in health across all indicators [from the abstract].
All the more reason to consider how to design and implement social marketing programs that target young adult audiences. As CFAH put it: Apparently young people need to age beyond 26 because, before then, they think they are in good health and consequently feel invulnerable to the risks they are taking, unaware that many of the bad habits – smoking, drinking and overeating -- will never go away.
Technorati Tags: Center for the Advancement of Health, Health Behaviors, Teens
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