UC Faculty Join Institute of Medicine
Eleven UC faculty members have been recently chosen among 65 new members inducted into the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine.
The UC system showed the highest representation this year with 11 new members, compared to other universities that had a maximum of four in the election. There are currently a total of 1,051 members, 161 of them from the University of California.
This honor is considered one of the highest bestowed upon medical and health professionals. Appointed by current members, candidates undergo an intensive selection process and are nominated on the basis of professional achievements and commitment to service.
This year’s members include researchers, department chairs, professors and university officials, and their backgrounds range from law to medicine to psychiatry. The newest members are from UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD and UC San Francisco, four of whom are from UCSD.
Young Adult Health Needs Attention
The healthiness of young adults lags far behind adolescents, with mortality rates more than double that of teens due to increased rates of injury, illness, homicide and suicide, according to a new UC San Francisco analysis by adolescentmedicine researchers.
Young adults mirror adolescents in terms of health issues, but they have received little attention from today’s researchers, policymakers and professionals, according to M. Jane Park, author of “The Health Status of Young Adults in the United States.” As a result, researchers emphasize the need for more focused research and programs targeted toward adults, comparable to earlier efforts directed at teens.
Among 18- to 24-year-old adults, suicide rates are three times higher than adolescents, with young men being six times more likely than young women to commit suicide. Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death, however, with about 70 percent attributed to motor vehicle accidents and a large number of them involving alcohol use. The incidence of homicide also peaks in young adulthood, with males being more likely to commit a homicide.
Young adults also make up the group with the lowest rate of health insurance coverage, with only 38 percent of young men and 31 percent of young women insured.
Another factor that sheds light on the statistics is drug use, with the rate of tobacco use by young adults — the leading cause of death among all ages — over three times that of adolescents. The rate of heavy drinking among young adults is five times higher than that of teens, and rates of illicit drug use nearly double that of adolescents.
“Many young people are left to fend for themselves, as their risk for health problems gets worse,” Park said.
