This is a report on a four and one-half year study of adolescent health, based on data collected through personal interviews with and medical examinations of 752 youth, 12-17 years of age, in a representative cross section of households in Harlem. Almost all were black and this report focuses on them alone. On the assumption that many health needs among adolescents in Harlem are not being met, and that innovations in providing care will be required to meet those needs, the three major objectives in this study were: (1) to assess the physical and emotional health status of adolescents in Harlem; (2) to determine their utilization of available health care services and their needs for medical care; and, (3) to make recommendations for more effective provision of health services. Personal interviews were conducted in the adolescents' homes by specially trained survey interviewers who were matched to their respondents for both sex and ethnicity. The interviews dealt at length with adolescents' current health status--physical and emotional; utilization of medical and dental services; personal health practices; and attitudes toward health and toward the medical care they had received. All young people who were interviewed were offered a free comprehensive medical examination. ["Appendix E" may not be legible in MF or HC reproduction due to size of the print.] (Author/JM)