Hello subscribers,
Below you will find some new adolescent health articles that have recently been published, that will be of interest. All three are Open Access, the first two were published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the third The Lancet.
From Advocacy to Action in Global Adolescent Health
In May 2016, The Lancet published a report titled, “Our Future: A Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing,” the culmination of three years of work from a geographically diverse interdisciplinary group. The report argued that healthy growth across adolescence and young adulthood shapes life course and intergenerational trajectories so that health investments yield a “triple dividend.” With current global interest in adolescent health at an unprecedented level, it outlines three next steps to advance from advocacy to effective action: (1) there is a pressing need for comprehensive and integrated strategies, inclusive of, but extending beyond, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV; (2) interventions should address both adolescent health service coverage and determinants of health that lie in sectors such as education, justice, transport, and industry and employment, as well as families and local communities; and (3) scale-up of responses will require not only investments in country-level capacities for measuring need and responding with evidence-based practice but also the establishment of processes for accountability and meaningful youth engagement.
Written by the our Commissioner Leads (G Patton, S Sawyer, D Ross, R Viner & J Santelli).
Evidence and Evidence Gaps in Adolescent Health
The momentum to bring adolescents and young adults to center stage in global health and international development is palpable. Adolescents are increasingly seen as a crucial group for the success of the newly adopted Agenda for Sustainable Development. Sitting within the Agenda for Sustainable Development framework, the 2030 Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health has extended the Every Woman, Every Child agenda to adolescence. The strategy articulates the need for adolescent responsive health systems as well as social determinants, a focus that extends to legal and policy environments.
Written by G Patton & M Temmerman.
Measuring the health-related Sustainable Development Goals in 188 countries: a baseline analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015
In September, 2015, the UN General Assembly established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs specify 17 universal goals, 169 targets, and 230 indicators leading up to 2030. We provide an analysis of 33 health-related SDG indicators based on the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 (GBD 2015).
Written by the GBD 2015 SDG Collaborators (Commissioners included – Z Bhutta, A Mokdad, P Azzopardi, V Patel, G Patton & S Sawyer).