Adolescents With Special Health Needs: Prevalence, Severity, and Access to Health Services

The health care needs of disabled adolescents are examined using data from a nationally representative sample of 15,181 randomly selected adolescents aged 10 to 18 years from the 1984 National Health Interview Survey. More than 6% of adolescents, or nearly 2 million nationwide, suffered some degree of disability or limitation in their usual activities in 1984. The leading causes of disability were mental disorders and respiratory diseases. Adolescents living in poverty and in households where the adult members had completed little formal education exhibited increased risk of disability. Disabled adolescents were shown to have three times as many physician contacts annually and spend nine times as many days hospitalized as their nondisabled counter-parts. One in every seven adolescents with a disability was found to be uninsured--exposing their families to extreme financial risks. The great cost of insurance was cited as the primary reason for absence of coverage for 70% of all adolescents without coverage. Public policy implications of these results are discussed.