Abstract
BackgroundIn order to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 and 6, it is essential to address adolescents’ health.ObjectiveTo estimate the additional resources required to scale up adolescent friendly health service interventions with the objective to reduce mortality and morbidity among individuals aged 10 to 19 years in 74 low- and middle- income countries.MethodsA costing model was developed to estimate the financial resources needed to scale-up delivery of a set of interventions including contraception, maternity care, management of sexually transmitted infections, HIV testing and counseling, safe abortion services, HIV harm reduction, HIV care and treatment and care of injuries due to intimate partner physical and sexual violence. Financial costs were estimated for each intervention, country and year using a bottom-up ingredients approach, defining costs at different levels of delivery (i.e., community, health centre, and hospital level). Programme activity costs to improve quality of care were also estimated, including activities undertaken at national-, district- and facility level in order to improve adolescents’ use of health services (i.e., to render health services adolescent friendly).ResultsCosts of achieving universal coverage are estimated at an additional US$ 15.41 billion for the period 2011–2015, increasing from US$ 1.86 billion in 2011 to US$ 4,31 billion in 2015. This corresponds to approximately US$ 1.02 per adolescent in 2011, increasing to 4.70 in 2015. On average, for all 74 countries, an annual additional expenditure per capita ranging from of US$ 0.38 in 2011 to US$ 0.82 in 2015, would be required to support the scale-up of key adolescent friendly health services.ConclusionThe estimated costs show a substantial investment gap and are indicative of the additional investments required to scale up health service delivery to adolescents towards universal coverage by 2015.
Highlights
In a growing number of countries, a demographic transition is occurring
The estimated costs show a substantial investment gap and are indicative of the additional investments required to scale up health service delivery to adolescents towards universal coverage by 2015
As children survive the dangers of childhood illnesses and move into the second decade of their lives, there is a bulge in the adolescent band of the population pyramid
Summary
In a growing number of countries, a demographic transition is occurring. As children survive the dangers of childhood illnesses and move into the second decade of their lives, there is a bulge in the adolescent band of the population pyramid. [1] The current cohort of young people worldwide is the largest it has ever been. In 2010, the International Year of Youth, there were 1822 million young people 10–24 years of age – representing one quarter of the world’s population. [2] Four out of five young people live in less developed countries, and represent up to one third of those countries’ populations. [3] every year, 2.6 million young people die. The health of young people has been largely neglected in global public health because this age group is perceived as healthy. Mortality among young people has decreased less than in other age groups, overtaking childhood mortality in some highincome countries.
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