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2009 SESSION
091207412WHEREAS, during the transition from childhood to adulthood, adolescents may establish unhealthy patterns of behavior and make poor lifestyle choices that affect both their current and future health; and
WHEREAS, adolescents and young adults are adversely affected by serious health and safety issues such as motor vehicle crashes, violence, and substance abuse, and may fail to adopt behaviors that could decrease their risk of developing chronic diseases; and
WHEREAS environmental factors such as family, peer group, school, and community characteristics may also contribute to the challenges that adolescents face; and
WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Information Survey found that immunization coverage levels among adolescents in 2006 did not meet the Healthy People 2010 objective of 90 percent coverage for youth aged 13 to 15 for any of the vaccines measured; and
WHEREAS, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Medical Association recommend routine health care visits for adolescents aged 11 and 12 to receive recommended immunizations and other evidence-based preventative health care services; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration has developed, in conjunction with AAP, the Bright Futures Initiative, which provides a set of guidelines including recommendations on immunizations and routine health screenings for adolescents; and
WHEREAS, many adolescents may not have access to primary health care; and
WHEREAS, the National Association of County and City Health Officials believes that the adolescent health care platform should occur in multiple settings, including traditional and nontraditional settings such as schools; and
WHEREAS, NACCHO supports the development of an adolescent health care platform that would address unmet prevention needs among adolescents, including health care screenings and testing, age-appropriate immunizations, injury prevention, obesity prevention, and mental health screenings; and
WHEREAS, the ACIP recommends the use of United States Food and Drug Administration approved vaccines for pertussis, tetanus, meningitis, and HPV in adolescents and the CDC has launched a national campaign to raise awareness about adolescent health and immunization; and
WHEREAS, the Society for Adolescent Medicine has found that adolescent well visits are one of the best tools of preventative care to ensure continued health from childhood to adulthood, and that children and adolescents who regularly visit a primary care physician are less likely to have emergency room visits and preventable hospitalizations; and
WHEREAS, because adolescents remain under the guardianship of their parents, parental awareness of the need for an adolescent well visit plays an enormous role in the incidence of adolescent well visits; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, That the importance of the Adolescent Well Health visit be recognized, and that state legislators seek to improve adolescent health by educating parents about the importance of adolescent well health visits to prevent chronic disease, appropriately intervene to better treat chronic disease, and update immunizations.