Adolescent health: is it now on the nation's agenda?

The Office of Technology Assessment has a deserved reputation for issuing high-quality, if hard-nosed and critical reports. Pediatricians reacted somewhat skeptically to their earlier report on child health,1 which stated that there was little evidence for the efficacy of the number of health supervision visits that are recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. We urge you not to let that report scare you off from a new report on adolescents.2 It is very comprehensive, and should go far to put adolescents on the national agenda. It is passionate, yet based on careful analysis of data. It documents the increase in risk-taking behaviors, with a concomitant decrease in healthy life-styles, among many adolescents over the past two decades.