Reviews
Health for the World's Adolescents: A Second Chance in the Second Decade
The World Health Organization has produced a multimedia, interactive online report entitled Health for the World's Adolescents: A Second Chance in the Second Decade. The report provides an overview of global and regional estimates of adolescent mortality and disability-adjusted life years, disaggregated by age, sex, and cause, and country-level data on health-related behaviors and conditions among adolescents. It outlines the reasons why adolescence is a unique period in the life course requiring special attention and synthesizes current thinking about the determinants that underlie the differences in health status between adolescents.Trends in Adolescent and Young Adult Health in the United States
This review presents a national health profile of adolescents and young adults (ages 10–24). The data presented include trends on demographics, mortality, health-related behaviors, and healthcare access and utilization, as well as the most significant gender and racial/ethnic disparities. Although the data show some improvement, many concerns remain. Encouraging trends—such as decreases in rates of homicide, suicide, and some measures of reproductive health—appear to be leveling off or, in some cases, reversing (e.g., birth and gonorrhea rates).
