Young Adults In US Face Health Challenges: CDC

“No health insurance, obesity, poor health habits, and unintentional injuries are some of the key health challenges facing young adults in the United States today, according to the latest report on the nation's health. This year's annual report -- Health, United States: 2008 -- prepared by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics - features a special section on the health and health habits of young adults aged 18 to 29 years. According to the report, obesity rates have tripled among young adults in the past three decades, from 8 percent during the period 1971-1974 to 24 percent during the period 2005-2006. ‘Obesity rates do not appear to be increasing as rapidly as they did in past decades, but remain high, with over a third of adults age 20 and over considered to be obese in 2005-2006,’ the CDC notes in a written statement. What's more they often lack health insurance. In 2006, according to the report, 34 percent of adults aged 20 to 24 had no health insurance and 29 percent of those aged 25 to 29 were uninsured. Young adults, Bernstein noted, are often uninsured ‘because they are young, and some of them don't have jobs because they just finished school. Also, employers today are less likely to provide health coverage to new employees.’ ‘There also seem to be huge access problems among the uninsured,’ Bernstein said. During 2004 and 2006, 17 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 reported needing but not receiving medical care, prescription drugs, mental health care, or eyeglasses because they could not afford them. ‘It is a big problem,’ she said.”

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/02/23/eline/links/20090223elin016.html