Adolescents Health – its

demographic importance
What is adolescent health? Adolescent health, or youth health, is the range of
approaches to preventing, detecting or treating young people’s health and well
being.The term adolescent and young people are often used interchangeably, as
are the terms Adolescent Health and Youth Health. Young people's health is
often complex and requires a comprehensive, biopsychosocial approach.
Although adolescence and young adulthood are generally healthy times of life,
some important health and social problems either start or peak during these
years. Examples include:

1.Mental disorders
2.Substance use
3.Smoking/nicotine use
4.Nutrition and weight conditions
5.Sexually transmitted infections, including human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV)
6.Teen and unintended pregnancies
7.Homelessness
8.Academic problems and dropping out of school
9.Homicide
10.Suicide
11.Motor vehicle collisions
Because they are in developmental transition, adolescents and young adults are
particularly sensitive to influences from their social environments.Their
families, peer groups, schools, and neighborhoods can either support or threaten
young people’s health and well-being. Societal policies and cues, such as
structural racism and media messages, can do the same. Older adolescents and
young adults, including those with chronic health conditions, may face
challenges as they transition from the child to the adult health care system, such
as changes in their insurance coverage and legal status and decreased attention
to their developmental and behavioral needs.Bolstering the positive
development of young people facilitates their adoption of healthy behaviors and
and helps ensure a healthy and productive adult population.
Some young people engage in risky behaviours that affect their health and
therefore the majority of health problems are psychosocial. Many young people
experience multiple problems. These behaviours are established as a young
person and go on to become the lifestyles of adults leading to chronic health
problems. Social, cultural and environmental factors are all important. Young
people have specific health problems and developmental needs that differ from
those of children or adults: The causes of ill-health in adolescents are mostly
psychosocial rather than biological. Young people often engage in health risk
behaviours that reflect the processes of adolescent development:
experimentation and exploration, including using drugs and alcohol, sexual
behaviour, and other risk taking that affect their physical and mental health.
Adolescent health also encompasses children's and young people's sexual and
reproductive health. Young people often lack awareness of the harm associated
with risk behaviours, and the skills to protect themselves as well as the lack
knowledge about how and where to seek help for their health concerns. By
intervening at this early life stage, many chronic conditions later in life can be
prevented.

Importance of Adolescent health

Adolescence is a critical transitional period, that includes the biological changes
of puberty and developmental tasks such as normative exploration and learning
to be independent., young adults who have reached the age of majority also face
significant social and economic challenges with few organizational supports at a
time when they are expected to take on adult responsibilities and obligations.
There are significant disparities in outcomes among racial and ethnic groups. In
general, AYAs who are African American, American Indian, or Latino,
especially those living in poverty, experience worse outcomes in a variety of
areas such as obesity, teen and unintended pregnancy, tooth decay, and
educational achievement, compared to AYAs who are Caucasian or Asian
American. In addition, sexual minority youth have a higher prevalence of many
health risk behaviors.
The financial burdens of preventable health problems are large and include the
long-term costs of chronic diseases resulting from behaviors begun during
adolescence and young adulthood. For example, the annual adult health–related
financial burden of cigarette smoking, which usually starts during these years,
was calculated as $289 billion for 2009–2012.
The importance of adolescent health has been increasing over the past decade.
Currently the top five global causes of death in older adolescents (15-19 years)
are:
*Road Injury
*Self-harm
*HIV/ AIDS
*Interpersonal violence
*Drowning
Adolescent health is not just a question of individual well-being: As the size of
the adolescent population grows, especially in developing countries, the health
of young people will be a major determinant of economic and social
development and progress. Investing in research, policies, and programs to
improve adolescent health is a key strategy to preserve gains in childhood health
and ensure that girls and boys grow into healthy and productive men and
women.

Understanding Adolescent and young adult health.

The leading causes of illness and death among AYAs are largely preventable,
and health outcomes are frequently both behaviorally mediated and linked to
multiple social factors. This is shown by the following empirical examples:

Family
*Adolescents who have good communication and are bonded with a caring
adult are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.
*Parents who supervise and are involved with their adolescents’ activities are
promoting a safe environment for them to explore opportunities.
*The children of families living in poverty are more likely to have health
conditions and poorer health status, as well as lower access to and use of health
care services.
School
*Student health and academic achievement are linked. Healthy students are
more effective learners.
*Academic success and achievement strongly predicts overall adult health
outcomes. Proficient academic skills are associated with lower rates of risky
behaviors and higher rates of healthy behaviors.
*High school graduation leads to lower rates of health problems and risk for
incarceration,as well as enhanced financial stability and socio-emotional well-
being during adulthood
*The school social environment affects student attendance, academic
achievement, engagement with learning, likelihood of graduation, social
relationships, behavior, and mental health.
Neighborhood- AYAs growing up in distressed neighborhoods with high rates
of poverty are at risk for exposure to violence and a variety of negative
outcomes, including poor physical and mental health, delinquency, and risky
sexual behavior.
Media Exposure
*AYAs exposed to media portrayals of violence, smoking, and drinking are at
risk for adopting these behaviors.
*Although social media use offers important benefits to AYAs, such as health
promotion, communication, education, and entertainment, it also increases risks
for exposure to cyberbullying, engagement in “sexting,” and depression,

Emerging Issues in Adolescent and Young Adult Health

Three important issues influence how the health of AYAs will be approached in
the coming decade:

1.The AYA population is becoming more ethnically diverse, with rapid

increases in the numbers of Latino and Asian American youth. The growing
ethnic diversity will require cultural responsiveness to health care needs as well
as sharpened attention to disparate health, academic, and economic outcomes.
2.The mental health of AYAs has a profound impact on their physical health,
academic achievement, and well-being.About 50% of lifelong mental disorders
begin by age 14 and 75% begin by age 24.Suicide is a leading cause of death
among AYAs and suicide rates climbed significantly for these age groups
between 1999 and 2014. Trauma associated with common adverse childhood
experiences (ACEs) contributes to mental and behavioral health issues for many
youth as well as negative adult outcomes.Fortunately, at least some ACEs can
be prevented and their effects improved.
3.Positive youth development (PYD) interventions are intentional processes that
provide all youth with the support, relationships, experiences, resources, and
opportunities needed to become competent, thriving adults. Their use is growing
for preventing AYA health risk behaviors.An expanding evidence base
demonstrates that well-designed PYD interventions can lead to positive
outcomes, including the prevention of AYA health risk behaviors. Additional
evaluation is necessary to learn how to tailor successful interventions to meet
the needs of different groups of AYAs.
To avoid this issues we can take funding from the Health Services and
Resources Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, AMCHP works
with maternal and child health professionals to achieve the following adolescent
health goals:
*Improve the health of women, children, youth, families and children and youth
with special health care needs through the promotion of a lifecourse framework
*Promote the health of adolescents by strengthening state-level capacity to
develop, implement and evaluate effective adolescent health public health
interventions, programs and policies
*Advance leadership practices that ensure strong leadership for MCH at the
national, state and local levels.
Moreover, as most of lifelong healthy and unhealthy lifestyle habits are
established during adolescence, developing effective health promotion and
disease prevention strategies for adolescents seems crucial.