WEDNESDAY, March 19, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The prevalence of chronic conditions (CC) and functional limitations (FL) is increasing among children and young adults, according to a study published online March 7 in Academic Pediatrics.

Lauren E. Wisk, Ph.D., from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Niraj Sharma, M.D., M.P.H., from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, examined the current prevalence and recent trends in pediatric-onset conditions in a secondary analysis of data from 236,412 participants, aged 5 to 25 years, from the 1999 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey.

The researchers found an increase in the prevalence of children (aged 5 to 17 years) with a CC/FL, from 22.57 percent in 1999/2000 to 30.21 percent in 2017/2018, representing a 0.24 percentage point adjusted annual increase per year or about 130,000 additional children per year. A similar increase was seen in the prevalence of young adults (18 to 25 years) with a CC/FL (adjusted annual increase of 0.33 percentage points per year). For both age groups, asthma and mental/behavioral health conditions were some of the leading CC and FL contributors to this increase, respectively. An estimated 1.2 million youth with a CC or FL turn 18 years old each year.

“Given the unprecedented number of youth with these pediatric-onset conditions, it is incumbent for the overall health care system to not only treat these youth in the pediatric setting but also seek ways to matriculate them into adult care so that their conditions are successfully managed across their life course,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text

Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.