Aims UNICEF's 2011 report on adolescence highlights the unmet healthcare needs of young people and the lack of good quality data to guide improvements. This paper aims to characterise the use of healthcare services by young people (11-24 years) and the main reasons for inpatient admission in this age group.

Methods 2008-9 Hospital Episode Statistics data on inpatient, outpatient and emergency care were accessed via the Department of Health. GP consultation data for 2007 were accessed from Qresearch. We calculated the percentage of care episodes, the mean number per person-year (using Office of National Statistics mid-year population figures), and the male to female ratio for each age group. For inpatient data, we calculated the percentage of care episodes in 7 selected International Classification of Disease (ICD 10) chapters.

Results Table 1: Healthcare use by age group

Table 2: Inpatient episodes by age, sex and selected ICD 10 chapter (%)

Conclusions These data provide an overview of healthcare use by young people in England and the common reasons for hospital admission.