Quality Health Care for Adolescents
The growing attention to the importance of universal health coverage raises challenges for all age groups. The focus of this chapter is on how the healthcare system can best respond to the health needs of adolescents and young adults. Historically, this c
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Valentina Baltag and Susan M. Sawyer
Introduction As children mature into adolescents and then young adults, the burden of disease they experience and the health risks they face change dynamically with age. In contrast to younger children for whom infectious diseases constitute the major burden of disease, adolescents face a wider set of disorders and health risks that accompany the physical and emotional changes of puberty. For example, accidents and injuries are the greatest cause of death among adolescents (WHO 2014; Patton et al. 2009). Mental health and substance use disorders typically begin to become problematic in the adolescent years, while sexual and reproductive health needs Valentina Baltag is staff member of the World Health Organization. The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this chapter and they do not necessarily represent the decisions or policies of the World Health Organization. V. Baltag (&) Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] S.M. Sawyer Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children’s Hospital; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia S.M. Sawyer Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia
become more significant following puberty (Sawyer et al. 2012). Chronic health conditions also increase in prevalence with age; when grouped together, these constitute a significant burden (Sawyer et al. 2007). Additionally, adolescence is also a time of changing risk, with adolescence being the age of onset of many behaviors that have the capacity to affect health outcomes in adolescence itself (e.g., injuries as a result of alcohol intoxication), into adulthood (e.g., substance abuse) and into the next generation (e.g., fetal alcohol syndrome) (Sawyer et al. 2012). In this context, adolescents and young adults have fundamental needs for acute healthcare services in addition to the role of healthcare services in providing preventatively orientated interventions to this age group. The extent of psychosocial and neurocognitive development that takes place during the second decade of life heralds different challenges and opportunities for clinicians when caring for adolescents when compared to younger children and older adults (Sawyer et al. 2012). These changes affect how adolescents understand information and what information influences their behaviors. Neurocognitive maturation influences how young people might think about the future yet make decisions in the present. Engaging with new ideas, experimenting with new ways of being and behaving, and responding to different emotions and community expectations is a normal part of adolescence.
© World Health Organization 2017 All rights reserved. The World Health Organization has granted the Publisher permission for the reproduction of this chapter A.L. Cherry et al. (eds.), International Handbook on Adolescent Health and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40743-2_15
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