Health Statistics

Bringing awareness to families who are facing the dramatic rise in health conditions in family members.

DRUG USAGE

  • Drug use went up 61%3 among 8th graders in the US between 2016 and 2020
  • Around 50%3 of teenagers reported having misused a drug at least once
  • 11.2%3 of overdose deaths are between the ages of 15 to 24 years

DIABETES

  • The rate of new cases (or incidence) of diabetes in youths younger than 20 years increased in the United States between 2002 and 2015, with a 4.8% increase per year for type 2 diabetes and a 1.9% increase per year for type 1 diabetes.4

EATING DISORDERS

  • In the US, from 2018 to 2022, health visits related to eating disorders more than doubled among people under the age of 17, and visits for all eating disorders among this age group increased by 107.4%, from approximately 50,000 visits in early 2018 to >100 000 in 2022.5

LEARNING DISABILITIES

  • The number of students ages 3–21 receiving IDEA services in the United States increased from 6.4 million in school year 2010–11 to 7.3 million (equivalent of 15% of all public school students) in school year 2021–22.6

INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

  • The prevalence of intellectual disability increased with age, from 1.39% for children aged 3–7 years to 2.35% for children aged 13–17 years.7
  • During 2019–2021, a significant increase in the prevalence of any diagnosed developmental disability was observed.7

DEPRESSION

  • 15.08% of youth (age 12-17) report suffering from at least one major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year.8
  • The number of youth experiencing MDE increased by 306,000 (1.24%) from last year's dataset.8

EPILEPSY

  • 470,000 children have active epilepsy in the nation.9
  • According to the latest estimates, about 0.6% of children aged 0-17 years have active epilepsy.9

ALLERGIES

  • In 2021, just over 25% of children in the United States had at least one allergic condition.10
  • In 2021, 27.2% of all children had one or more of the three selected diagnosed allergic conditions (seasonal allergies, eczema, and food allergies).10

CYSTIC FIBROSIS

  • There are close to 40,000 children and adults living with cystic fibrosis in the United States (and an estimated 105,000 people have been diagnosed with CF across 94 countries).11

ANXIETY

  • Childhood anxiety disorders are very common, affecting 1 in 8 children.12
  • The National Institute of Mental Health estimates a prevalence between the ages 13 and 18 years of 25.1% and a lifetime prevalence of 5.9% for severe anxiety disorder.12

AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS

  • Incidence of autoimmune thyroid illnesses increased from 6.3% to almost 2-fold, 12.5%, in 2018.13

ASTHMA

  • According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, currently, there are about 4.5 million children in America under the age of 18 with asthma - which is around 6.5% of kids.14

ECZEMA

  • It is estimated that 1 in 1015 individuals will develop eczema during their lifetime, with prevalence peaking in early childhood.

IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA

  • According to the World Health Organization, 39.8% of children aged 6-59 months around the world have anemia.16

INFLUENZA

  • Around 20-30% of children get the flu every year in America.17

CELIAC

  • Celiac disease affects 1 in 300 children in the United States.18 That number rises to 1 in 10 for children with a parent or sibling who has the disease.19

OBESITY

  • According to the National Survey of Children's Health, in 2021-2022, 17.0% of youth ages 10 to 17 had obesity.20

CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

  • Congenital Heart Disease is the most common type of birth defect - affecting around 1% of children in America.21

ORAL CONDITIONS

  • More than half of children aged 6 to 8 have had a cavity in at least one of their baby (primary) teeth.22
  • More than half of adolescents aged 12 to 19 have had a cavity in at least one of their permanent teeth.22

CANCER

  • Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease after infancy among children in the United States.23
  • Among children ages 0 to 14 years, it is estimated that 9,91023 will be diagnosed with cancer and 1,04023 will die of the disease.

REFERENCES

    3 National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens. (n.d.). Teen Drug Use. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://drugabusestatistics.org/teen-drug-use/
    4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). New CDC report: More U.S. children diagnosed with diabetes. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/research/reports/children-diabetes-rates-rise.html
    5 Marino, B. S., et al. (2023). Title of the article. The Journal of Pediatrics, volume(issue), pages. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(23)00596-6/fulltext
    6 National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Students With Disabilities. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgg/students-with-disabilities
    7 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). FastStats - Health of Black or African American non-Hispanic Population. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db473.htm
    8 Mental Health America. (2022). Mental Health America - Youth Data. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.mhanational.org/issues/2022/mental-health-america-youth-data
    9 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Epilepsy Fast Facts. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cdc.gov/epilepsy/about/fast-facts.htm
    10 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). FastStats - Health of Hispanic or Latino Population. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db459.htm
    11 Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. (n.d.). About Cystic Fibrosis. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cff.org/intro-cf/about-cystic-fibrosis
    12 National Center for Biotechnology Information. (n.d.). Childhood Anxiety Disorders. In StatPearls. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK476265/
    13 Türk, S., et al. (2020). Autoimmune thyroid illnesses were found to be very common in the study period. PLOS ONE. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7424019/
    14 Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. (n.d.). Asthma Facts and Figures. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://aafa.org/asthma/asthma-facts/
    15 National Eczema Association. (n.d.). Eczema Facts. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://nationaleczema.org/research/eczema-facts/
    16 World Health Organization. (n.d.). Anemia. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/anaemia
    17 National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. (n.d.). Flu and Children. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.nfid.org/infectious-diseases/flu-and-children/
    18 Cedars-Sinai. (n.d.). Celiac Disease in Children. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/celiac-disease-in-children.html
    19 Celiac Disease Foundation. (n.d.). Celiac Disease in Children. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/celiac-disease-in-children/
    20 State of Childhood Obesity. (n.d.). Demographic Data: Ages 10-17. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://stateofchildhoodobesity.org/demographic-data/ages-10-17/
    21 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Congenital Heart Defects in the United States. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/heartdefects/features/kf-chd-estimates-us.html
    22 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Oral Health Fast Facts. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/fast-facts/cavities/index.html
    23 National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). Childhood and Adolescent Cancers. Retrieved May 7, 2024, from https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/child-adolescent-cancers-fact-sheet