Adolescent Health Problems

Adolescents is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally takes place during the period from puberty to legal adulthood. Adolescence is usually associated with the teenage years

Adolescents are a group of healthy individuals. The health status of an adolescent determines the health status in their adulthood. Many serious diseases in adulthood have their roots in adolescence. Also, an unfortunate fact is that many teenagers die a premature death due to various reasons that are either preventable or treatable and many more suffer from chronic ill-health and disability. We can categorize the health needs of the adolescents broadly into three categories- physical, psychological and social. The main health issues faced by the adolescents include: Mental health problems such as, early pregnancy and childbirth, human immunodeficiency, depression, virus/sexually transmitted infection (HIV/STI) and other infectious diseases, violence, malnutrition and unintentional injuries etc

Adolescents form a socially important segment of the population. Apart from physical health, a positive social health constitutes holistic health of the adolescents. Prevalence of sexual abuse, violence and physical abuse are increasing among the adolescents. For a long time, there was no organized system to govern and monitor the social needs of adolescents.

The Committee on the Gopalakrishnan 4 Rights of the Child (CRC, WHO), published guidelines in 2013 on the rights of children and adolescents and issued guidelines on States’ obligations to recognize the special health and development needs and rights of adolescents and young people. This has been further envisaged in WHO report in 2014 titled “Health for the world’s adolescents”.

In view of this, Government of India launched its first comprehensive programme for adolescents, ‘Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram’, during January 2014 which has a sharp focus on adolescents’ sexual health. The programme forsee's that all adolescents in India are able to realize their full potential by making informed and responsible decisions related to their health and well-being.

In this article, my aim is to discuss the issues related to adolescent health problems, existing adolescent health programmes, their services and the challenges in achieving universal coverage of wholesome adolescent health in India at present. My article is intended to create awareness among the stakeholders about the importance of strengthening the adolescent health services and to meet their required needs.