Now, that the health care bill has passed, I plan to write a series of posts on teens and health. Here are some of my questions. What are adolescent health concerns? And, how will new health care laws address them? What are healthy habits for teens?

The first health care concern for adolescents is staying alive. Historically, infants died of infectious diseases. Adults in developed countries die of heart disease and cancer. But, the most common cause of death in adolescents is accidents. According to data from the Center for Disease Control about 18,000 adolescents die each year ( http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Teen_Drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html). Death rates for males are higher than that for females. And, older teens are more at-risk than younger ones. This is primarily due to motor vehicle accidents and firearm related deaths. Older teens have more access to these and boys take more risks than girls.

Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. Over one third of adolescent deaths are due to car accidents (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/adolescent2007.pdf.) In 2008, approximately 3500 U.S. older adolescents (i.e.15 - 19 years) were killed and more than 350, 000 were treated in emergency departments for motor-vehicle related injuries.