Adolescent health in the South-East Asia Region

WHO defines 'Adolescents' as individuals in the 10-19 years age group and 'Youth' as the 15-24 year age group. While 'Young People' covers the age range 10-24 years.

There are about 360 million adolescents comprising about 20% of the population in the countries of the South-East Asia Region (SEAR). The transition from childhood to adulthood involves dramatic physical, sexual, psychological and social developmental changes, all taking place at the same time. In addition to opportunities for development this transition poses risks to their health and wellbeing. Contrary to popular perception that this is a health age group, the adolescents do have several public health issues.

There were an estimated 1.7 million deaths among adolescents in 2015 in the Region; the leading causes of mortality included self-harm (suicide), road injury and maternal mortality (among women). In addition, significant morbidity is reported among adolescents in the Region – a loss of 21 783 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) per 100 000 adolescents owing to self-harm, iron deficiency anaemia, depressive disorders, road traffic injuries and diarrhoeal diseases.

Investing in adolescent health ensures triple dividends in terms of health during adolescence, health during later adulthood (by preventing risk factors for chronic conditions like non-communicable diseases) as well as health of the future generation (by ensuring health of the offspring of women who themselves remained healthy).

WHO has been supporting the Member States to strengthen national adolescent health programmes and delivery of appropriate evidence-based services.