The results of a large government-funded study begun in 1994 reveal a decline in a number of health indicators and a significant increase in health risks as American teens become young adults. Obesity increases, diet worsens, exercise declines, access to health care and health insurance goes down, and risky health behaviors, such as smoking, binge drinking and getting sexually transmitted disease, goes up. Contributing to the decline is the current instability in young adult years as more Americans are not getting married and settling down until they are older.

Source: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, January 2006.