It is during this period in life, that certain lifestyle decisions are made that will have long term influences on health in later years of life.
Much of the physical threat to adolescents and young adults stems from their behavior rather than disease. Seventy five percent of all mortality can be attributed to accidental injury, suicide and homicide. Many adolescents and young adults are exposed to considerable risk from STD's and pregnancy by participating in unprotected sex.
The younger population are susceptible to deleterious behaviors such as: substance abuse, fighting and weapon carrying. The health status of these ages as a whole group could be improved by reducing these high risk behaviors. Many people agree that many health problems could be improved from regular screenings and preventative healthcare, but that's not always an option, as the chapter shows. Many adults don't enjoy the benefits of insurance from it simply being too costly or not working at all.
Many health problems originate from social and cultural environments in which people have been raised and live, and the cultural and social norms. Unfortunately, many children are born a raised into families that don't always practice the best healthy choices. Many adolescents start smoking and drinking at an early age because it's provided for them at home and there's no structure around restricting it's use.
No comments:
Post a Comment