Final Examination # 1
Risk Factors:
 | When adolescents drive after drinking alcohol, they are more likely than adults to be in a crash, even when drinking less alcohol than adults. |
| Unprotected sexual intercourse and multiple sex partners place young people at risk for HIV infection, other STDs, and pregnancy. Each year, approximately three million cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) occur among teenagers and approximately 860,000 teenagers become pregnant. In 2001, 46% of high school students had ever had sexual intercourse, 14% of high school students had had four or more sex partners during their lifetime, and 42% of sexually active high school students did not use a condom at last sexual intercourse. |
| Unintentional injury accounts for around 60% of adolescent injury deaths, while violence (homicide and suicide) accounts for the remaining 40%. |
| Tobacco use in adolescence is associated with a range of health-compromising behaviors, including being involved in fights, carrying weapons, engaging in high-risk sexual behavior and using alcohol and other drugs. |
| Three out of four deaths for young people aged 15-24 are injury-related, either from unintentional injuries, suicide, or homicide. |
| The virus that causes AIDS, and other health problems, is called human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV |
| The risk of becoming infected with HIV can be virtually eliminated by not engaging in sexual activities and by not using illegal intravenous drugs. |
| The most pronounced differences between sexes in injury death rates occur within the older adolescent group (15-19 years). In this group, males are about 2.5 times more likely to die of any unintentional injury and 5 times more likely to die of homicide or suicide. The gender difference is most pronounced in drowning, where males are 10.6 times more likely to die than females of the same age. |
| The largest proportion of adolescent injuries are due to motor vehicle crashes |
| Participation in all types of physical activity declines strikingly as age or grade in school increases |
| Over 20 percent of 12th graders, 14 percent of 10th graders and 7.4 percent of 8th graders smoke cigarettes daily. |
| Our nation's young people are, in large measure, inactive, unfit, and increasingly overweight. Physical inactivity threatens to reverse the decades-long progress in reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases. |
| Of adolescents who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, most of them report that they would like to quit, but are not able to do so. |
| Nearly half of American youths aged 12-21 years are not vigorously active on a regular basis |
| Most infected people who develop symptoms of AIDS only live about 2 years after their symptoms are diagnosed. |
| It sometimes takes several years after becoming infected with the AIDS virus before symptoms of the disease appear. Thus, people who are infected with the virus can infect other people–even though the people who transmit the infection do not feel or look sick. |
| It is estimated that at least 4.5 million U.S. adolescents are cigarette smokers. |
| Injuries kill more adolescents than all diseases combined.2 |
| In general, males are more likely than females to die of any type on injury. |
| If current tobacco use patterns persist, an estimated 6.4 million children will die prematurely from a smoking-related disease. |
| HIV ranks 5th among the leading causes of death for all persons between the ages of 35 and 44, but 2nd among Hispanic males of that age group and 1st among African-American males of that age. |
| HIV may be transmitted in any of the following ways: (a) by sexual contact with an infected person (penis/vagina, penis/rectum, mouth/vagina, mouth/penis, mouth/rectum); (b) by using needles or other injection equipment that an infected person has used; (c) from an infected mother to her infant before or during birth. |
| For every injury death, there are about 41 injury hospitalizations and 1100 cases treated in emergency departments |
| Each day, nearly 4,800 adolsecents (aged 11-17) smoke their first cigarette; of these, nearly 2,000 will become regular smokers. That is almost two million annually. |
| Cigarette advertisements tend to emphasize youthful vigor, sexual attraction and independence themes, which appeal to teenagers and young adults struggling with these issues. |
| Cancer is the leading cause of death in the Asian/Pacific Islander population, and is second after heart disease for the white, black, and American Indian population. |
| Behavior that prevents exposure to HIV also may prevent unintended pregnancies and exposure to the organisms that cause Chlamydia infection, gonorrhea, herpes, human papillomavirus, and syphilis. |
| At least one adolescent (10-19 years old) dies of an injury every hour of every day; about 15,000 die each year. |
| Approximately 90 percent of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21. |
| Approximately 3 million teenagers are affected with a sexually transmitted disease each year |
| Among adolescents 15-19 years old, one in every four deaths is caused by a firearm. For this age group, the risk of dying from a firearm injury has increased by 77% since 1985 |
| Although teenagers are at risk of becoming infected with and transmitting the AIDS virus as they become sexually active, studies have shown that they do not believe they are likely to become infected.20,21 Indeed, a random sample of 860 teenagers (ages 16 to 19) in Massachusetts revealed that, although 70% reported they were sexually active (having sexual intercourse or other sexual contact), only 15% of this group reported changing their sexual behavior because of concern about contracting AIDS. Only 20% of those who changed their behavior selected effective methods such as abstinence or use of condoms.20 Most teenagers indicated that they want more information about AIDS. 20,21 |
| Although no transmission from deep, open-mouth (i.e., "French") kissing has been documented, such kissing theoretically could transmit HIV from an infected to an uninfected person through direct exposure of mucous membranes to infected blood or saliva |
| Although a latex condom does not provide 100% protection–because it is possible for the condom to leak, break, or slip off–it provides the best protection for people who do not maintain a mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner. Additional protection may be obtained by using spermicides that seem active against HIV and other sexually transmitted organisms in conjunction with condoms. |
| Alcohol is involved in about 40% of all adolescent drownings. |
| Alcohol is involved in about 35% of adolescent (15-20 years) driver fatalities |
| Adolescents who smoke regularly can have just as hard a time quitting as long-time smokers. |
| Adolescents are far less likely to use seat belts than any other age group. |
| Adolescents are especially vulnerable to fatal crashes at night; they do 20% of their driving at night, but they have more than 50% of their fatalities at night |
| According to a 2001 national survey of high school students, the overall prevalence of current cigarette use was 28 percent. |
| About 21% of all the persons diagnosed as having AIDS have been 20 to 29 years of age. Given the long incubation period between HIV infection and symptoms that lead to AIDS diagnosis (3 to 5 years or more), some fraction of those in the 20- to 29-year-age group diagnosed as having AIDS were probably infected while they were still teenagers. |
| About 14 percent of young people report no recent physical activity. Inactivity is more common among females (14%) than males (7%) and among black females (21%) than white females (12%). |
| About 1 to 1.5 million of the total population of approximately 240 million Americans currently are infected with the AIDS virus and consequently are capable of infecting others. |
| A total of 28,663 people died from firearms in 2000. |
| A total of 14,478 people died from HIV/AIDS in 2000. The age-adjusted death rate from HIV declined nearly 2 percent between 1999 and 2000. |
