Adolescents

Adolescent mortality is low compared to other age groups. However, mortality data do not provide an accurate picture of adolescents' health challenges, since they do not reflect behaviors that make adolescents more susceptible to severe and lifelong adverse consequences in later life.

Global forces are affecting the health and wellbeing of the younger generation in unprecedented ways. Humanity and the next generation are being shaped by population mobility, global communication, economic growth, and ecosystem sustainability. Therefore, adolescence has become increasingly recognized as an essential phase of life for achieving human potential. Individuals acquire the physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and economic resources during adolescence that lay the foundation for their health, wellbeing, and social interaction as adults. We can benefit today, in decades to come, and for future generations by managing these resources and investing in adolescent health and wellbeing. We propose a set of general considerations that should inform adolescent health interventions. Interventions should promote resilience in addition to responding to specific health challenges; be comprehensive; involve a number of sectors; be “adolescent-friendly”; address gender issues; include the most disadvantaged adolescents; and be theory-based.