Diseases and Health Problems of the Adolescent Student

Abstract

The students are not a group who are particularly vulnerable to mortal disease. The causes of death are fortunately few and in order of frequency they are malignant disease (cancer of various organs and the leukaemias), accidents and suicide. The death rate for the age group of 15–25 is the lowest of any age group now that tuberculosis is virtually eradicated in the developed community. It is this relative freedom from mortality, therefore, that inevitably leads to the student community being considered, medically, as ‘a healthy group’. From the point of view of morbidity, however, this is far from the truth, and physicians involved in the care of adolescents find that in terms of medical usage there is a consultation rate, per 1,000 students, of at least five attendances per year per student- a rate that compares in general family practice with that of the over 65s and the under 5s. There is a degree of supply and demand that prevails with the adolescent, however, which radically influences this rate, for the greater the number of physicians or counselling staff available for any set number of students, then the greater the number of students that avail themselves of the opportunity to consult.