Abstract
Unprecedented global forces are shaping the health and wellbeing of the largest generation of 10 to 24 year olds in human history. Population mobility, global communications, economic development, and the sustainability of ecosystems are setting the future course for this generation and, in turn, humankind. At the same time, we have come to new understandings of adolescence as a critical phase in life for achieving human potential. Adolescence is characterised by dynamic brain development in which the interaction with the social environment shapes the capabilities an individual takes forward into adult life.3 During adolescence, an individual acquires the physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and economic resources that are the foundation for later life health and wellbeing. These same resources define trajectories into the next generation. Investments in adolescent health and wellbeing bring benefits today, for decades to come, and for the next generation. Better childhood health and nutrition, extensions to education, delays in family formation, and new technologies offer the possibility of this being the healthiest generation of adolescents ever. But these are also the ages when new and different health problems related to the onset of sexual activity, emotional control, and behaviour typically emerge. Global trends include those promoting unhealthy lifestyles and commodities, the crisis of youth unemployment, less family stability, environmental degradation, armed conflict, and mass migration, all of which pose major threats to adolescent health and wellbeing. Adolescents and young adults have until recently been overlooked in global health and social policy, one reason why they have had fewer health gains with economic development than other age groups. The UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health initiated, in September, 2015, presents an outstanding opportunity for investment in adolescent health and wellbeing. However, because of limits to resources and technical capacities at both the national and the global level, effective response has many challenges. The question of where to make the most effective investments is now pressing for the international development community. This Commission outlines the opportunities and challenges for investment at both country and global levels (panel 1).
Highlights
The Second Lancet Series on Adolescent Health concluded that a “Failure to invest in the health of the largest generation of adolescents in the world’s history jeopardises earlier investments in maternal and child health, erodes future quality and length of life, and escalates suffering, inequality, and social instability.” 6 The response of the international development community to this and other calls has been striking
We identified six cohorts from low and middle income countries (LMICs) in which it was possible to examine the associations of secondary education participation with health (Figure 5 and Supplementary Figure 6)
The rapidity of change in the prevalence and severity of obesity means that prevention in childhood and adolescence is of the highest importance
Summary
Unprecedented global forces are shaping the health and wellbeing of the largest generation of 10 to 24year-olds in human history. 5 So too digital technologies and global communications offer exceptional opportunities for catch-up in training and education, health care and prevention, creation of inclusive health information systems, meaningful youth engagement and cooperation across sectors. The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health offers a framework to drive and coordinate investment, capacity building, research and evaluation.[4] Global strategies to extend education, to reduce gender inequalities and empower women, to improve food security and nutrition, to promote vocational skills and opportunities for employment are all likely to benefit adolescents and young adults. This generation of adolescents and young adults can transform all of our futures; there is no more pressing task in global health than ensuring they have the resources to do so
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