RT Book, Section A1 Alston-Taylor, Sharonda A1 Mostajabian, Salina A2 Kline, Mark W. SR Print(0) ID 1182922957 T1 Morbidity T2 Rudolph's Pediatrics, 23e YR 2018 FD 2018 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9781259588594 LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1182922957 RD 2024/11/09 AB According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are about 1.2 billion adolescents ages 10 to 19 years worldwide, of whom more than 40 million live in the United States, based on the 2012 Census data. This population is growing in numbers as well as in racial-ethnic and socioeconomic status diversity, which presents unique challenges, such as inconsistent access to care and adverse effects related to poverty, unstable housing, and homelessness. These variables factor in to morbidity among adolescents and young adults, presenting opportunities through policies and programs to improve public health and health economics outcomes in youth. Measurements such as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which is the sum of years lived with disability (YLD) and years of life lost (YLL), are used in the field of public health to gain a better understanding of the burden of disease. These measures are particularly important when assessing morbidity in adolescents, since many chronic diseases of adulthood have their origin during the teen years.