Adolescence: a foundation for future health

A focus on adolescence is central to the success of many public health agendas, including those mentioned in Millennium Development Goals. This paper argues that greater attention to adolescence is needed within each of these public health domains if global health targets are to be met.

The paper notes that health in adolescence is the result of interactions between early childhood development and the specific biological and social-role changes that accompany puberty. Yet it is circumvented with risk and protective factors that affect the uptake of health-related behaviours.

Findings include:

• the shape of adolescence is rapidly changing - the age of onset of puberty is decreasing and the age at which mature social roles are achieved is rising
• strategies that place the adolescent years centre stage provide important opportunities to improve health, both in adolescence and later in life.

The document points that re-orientating child-health advocacy groups to be more inclusive of adolescents would be helpful in the short-term, but more focused initiatives on adolescents are needed in the medium-term. Conclusions include:

• an international agenda on adolescent health would place the developmental phase of adolescence centre stage rather than any one health issue
• such an agenda would support investments in preventive interventions that extend beyond the health sector through alignment with education, employment, sex equality and human rights
• good information systems are an important step towards making adolescents and their health more visible to policy makers, researchers and donors
• greater engagement of young people will help to ensure the relevance of interventions that set out to target this diverse population
• funding to support the development of academic centers of excellence in adolescent health is necessary to develop advocacy and policy skills within adolescent health
• a strong focus on adolescent health within undergraduate and postgraduate health programmes is urgently needed.