WHO: Adolescent health needs urgent action
Last reviewed: 20.05.2018
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
The 68th session of the World Health Assembly was recently held, where it was proposed to develop a program on adolescent health in cooperation with youth, key partners, WHO member countries. In September last year, a global strategy began to be implemented, according to which every woman, child and adolescent anywhere in the world will be provided with the rights to physical and mental health, social and economic opportunities, and will also be able to take an active part in the formation of a successful society.
The program for WHO countries and partners indicates the main directions for planning and creating measures to meet the needs of the younger generation in the health sector. At this stage it is suggested to everyone who wants to comment on the program and the items that should be included in it. Specifically for this, an online survey was created, the results of which will be forwarded to the drafting group after the end and will be taken into account when creating a draft program for adolescent health .
More than 1 billion adolescents live on the planet, which differ in some features from other population groups:
- the health of adolescents depends on survival, health promotion in adulthood, and the health of future generations
- it is at this age that they begin to make a decision about a healthy lifestyle, the use of psychotropic drugs, sex, etc. And the choice of adolescents can be influenced by programs specifically targeted at this generation.
It is worth noting that all this time little attention has been paid to adolescents:
- Since 2000, the lowest mortality reduction rate has been observed, while all other population groups have received higher benefits from the epidemiological shift
- Despite the decline in mortality due to HIV, among adolescents, the death rate from this fatal infection continues to increase
- adolescent girls face high risks of complications during pregnancy and childbirth, most do not receive information and life-saving preventive measures and do not have access to effective contraceptives
- adolescents receive the lowest satisfaction from health services in comparison with other population groups, and also have problems with access to this kind of services (high costs, etc.)
- adolescent rights are limited.
According to experts, all this is due to the fact that adolescents are considered to be children, although grown up, while often ignoring the unique emotional, cognitive and social capabilities of the brain during this period.
It is also believed that adolescents are the healthiest group of the population, but the facts point to the opposite - only in 2012, more than 1 million adolescents died, while a number of deaths could be avoided.
In developed countries, the mortality rate at the age of 15-19 is several times higher, compared to children from one to four years old, most young people die from completely preventable causes, without becoming full members of society.
All programs targeting adolescents do not take into account the age characteristics that are different in children of the senior and younger adolescents.
A great deal of attention is paid to teenage pregnancy and HIV infections, but the main causes of mortality and disability among this group of people remain, especially teen depression, which is the main cause of death among young girls aged 15-19. Another cause of disability and death among young people is injury, but investment in this direction is much less than in reproductive health and HIV.
Modern health systems are focused mainly on the adult population and small children, despite the fact that in a number of countries every fifth resident is a teenager.
To date, less than half of countries have touched upon the issues of tobacco smoking and the mental health of adolescents in normative documents, but in practice the situation is much worse. Now is the time to change the situation and decision makers need to better understand the needs of adolescents and understand what they represent for the policy and health system, in addition, it should be determined what is important and what is secondary in the area of adolescent health.
Adolescent problems require an integrated approach, since their range is quite broad - from extra pounds and violence to pregnancy and depression.