How The World is Neglecting Young People

As you know I like to read widely, and only recently was looking at Lancet, which is the world’s oldest and most prestigious medical journal. It has an article on new research into the health and well-being of young people. Would you believe this research was led by Australian doctors and made for sobering reading? 

Our world is now home to 1.8 billion young people aged 10 to 24. That is the largest generation in history, but this new study found that adolescent health problems are greater than they were 25 years ago, while spending on youth health has not kept up with the population growth. 

The international study, led by three Melbourne institutions including the Burnett Institute and MCRI, identified that the bulk (53 per cent) of youth now live in the world’s poorest nations, which include most countries in sub-Sahara Africa and central, south and east Asia. In 1990 the proportion of young people living in the poorest countries was 46 per cent. I once read, given current birth trends, that by 2050 half of the world’s teenagers will be living in sub-Sahara Africa.

This latest paper, ‘Progress in adolescent health and wellbeing: tracking 12 headline indicators for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016’is a health snapshot of the world’s adolescents, who make up a third of global population. It looked at 12 youth health indicators including tobacco use, obesity, anaemia, completion of secondary education, child marriage, nutrition and non-communicable diseases.

The lead researcher, Burnet Institute Co-Head of Adolescent Health, Dr Peter Azzopardi, said he hoped the findings would help guide policy makers and funders, and correct the invisibility of adolescents in global health reporting.

“This research exposes the failure of health, education and legal systems to keep up with shifting adolescent needs and demographic change,” he said in a media statement released along with the research paper. “While there have been great improvements in adolescent health in some countries, compared to 1990, there are now 180 million more adolescents overweight and obese, and 75 million more living with anaemia. 

he said in a media statement released along with the research paper. “While there have been great improvements in adolescent health in some countries, compared to 1990, there are now 180 million more adolescents overweight and obese, and 75 million more living with anaemia. 

“The absolute number of young people not completing secondary education, 300 million, has changed little since 1990, and there remains substantial gender inequality in post education opportunities, with young women three times more likely to not be in employment or training compared to young men,” he said.

Dr Azzopardi said investing in adolescent health provided a “triple dividend” by ensuring the health of adolescents now, in the future, and for their children. That makes sense to me.

What I learnt from this paper is that teenager’s health is underfunded and overlooked by most of the world’s governments. It appears that we just don’t seem to care about young people. Another sobering fact I learnt is that in low and middle-income countries young people make up around 30 per cent of the population but less than two per cent of the world’s health budget is spent on youth health projects.

I am the father of a teenager. The future of our world will soon be in their hands, so why aren’t we investing more in young people?

Here are a few more facts from this latest research about the health of young people aged 10 to 24.

• The world’s adolescent population is made up of 929.9 million males and 871.4 million females
• The rate of adolescent obesity gas doubled since 1990 
• 324 million adolescents (18 per cent) are overweight or obese, up from 176 million in 1990
• 430 million adolescents (24 per cent) are anaemic 
• More than 22 per cent of all marriages globally involved girls aged under 18.  That rate rose to 38 per cent in the 70 countries with the heaviest health burdens
• Half of 20 to 24-year-olds had not finished secondary school 
• Although there was gender equality in secondary school completion, young women in low and middle-income countries had fewer opportunities for further education or employment than young men and are almost five times more likely to be unemployed or not in education or training
• 238 million adolescents and three times as many young women as men were not in education, employment or training
• 138 million adolescents smoked, down 38 million from 1990. In all countries more males than females smoked
• 71 million adolescents reported binge drinking in the past year. 
• There were 11.7 million live births to girls aged 15-19, down from 15.7 million in 1990. 
• 72 per cent of adolescent births (8.5 million) occurred in multi-burden countries where adolescent birth rates remain highest at 54 per 1,000 15 to 19-year-olds
• Males were more injury prone than females
• Croatia, Taiwan and Slovenia rank among the countries with the best youth health outcomes
• American Samoa has the highest prevalence of obesity, followed by Samoa and Tonga
• Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, and Federated States of Micronesia are among nations most at risk for non-communicable diseases 
• In India and Pakistan, 3.5 per cent of males are not in education, employment or training compared to 53.9 per cent of females.
• India’s rate of female anaemia (54 per cent) is more than twice the global average
• Just under half of all adolescents with anaemia (194 million) lived in India and China 
• Smoking rates for males are highest in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
• Binge drinking was most prevalent in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Ireland
• Iceland, Denmark and New Zealand had the highest percentage of females who engaged in binge drinking. Austria, Denmark and Ireland had the highest proportion of binge-drinking males.
• Secondary school completion rates are highest in Taiwan, South Korea, USA, Croatia, Singapore and Fiji, and lowest in sub-Saharan Africa
• India and China have a third of the world’s adolescents.

For years I was a youth worker and I just don’t understand why the world’s governments aren’t spending more on young people and their health. The only piece of good news is that the UN has adopted a new set of priorities to empower every women, every child and adolescents! Since 2015, 62 countries and 150 organisations have given nearly $30 billion to delivering programs for women, children and adolescents.

Let’s hope more is spent on the health of the world’s teenagers and they grow up healthy and prosperous.