What is adolescent population what are their problems describe the national poplulation policy in their context?
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Adolescent Health: Present Status and Its Related Programmes in India. Are We in the Right Direction?
C Sivagurunathan, R. Umadevi, [...], and S. Gopalakrishnan
Additional article information
Abstract
Adolescence is a phase of rapid growth and development during which physical, physiological and behavioural changes occur. They constitute more than 1.2 billion worldwide, and about 21% of Indian population. Morbidity and mortality occurring in this age group is mostly due to preventable causes. Young and growing children have poor knowledge and lack of awareness about physical and psychological changes that occurs during adolescence and the ill health affecting them. Existing Adolescent health programmes focus on rendering services like immunization, health education for sexual and reproductive health, nutritional education and supplementation, anemia control measures and counseling. Adolescent health programmes are fragmentary at present and there is no comprehensive programme addressing all the needs of adolescents. Access and availability of health care services are severely limited. Lack of accurate information, absence of proper guidance, parent’s ignorance, lack of skills and insufficient services from health care delivery system are the major barriers. Interventions should focus on providing psychological and mental health services and behaviour change communication towards leading a healthy lifestyle, restricting advertisement related to junk food products, awareness creation about reproductive and sexual health, educating parents to prevent early marriage, teenage pregnancy and to counsel their children on nutrition and reproductive health. Universal coverage of Adolescent friendly clinics is highly recommended. To be cost effective, all health services addressing adolescent should come under single programme. This review is intended to create awareness among the stakeholders about the importance of strengthening adolescent health services in order to meet their felt needs.
Keywords: Health problems, Health programmes, Teenage
Introduction
Adolescents are the young people aged between 10 to 19 y. It is a transitional stage of physical, physiological and psychological development from puberty to legal adulthood. Worldwide more than 1.2 billion are adolescents: this indicates that roughly one in every six persons is an adolescent [Table/Fig-1] [1]. About 21% of Indian population is adolescents (about 243 million) [2]. They are the future of the nation, forming a major demographic and economic force. They have specific needs which vary with gender, life circumstances and socio economic conditions. They face challenges like poverty, lack of access to health care services, unsafe environments etc. It is a period of preparation for undertaking greater responsibilities like familial, social, cultural and economic issues in adulthood.

[Table/Fig-1]:
Proportion of adolescents and World population
Adolescent Health Problems
Adolescents are a group of apparently healthy individuals. The health status of an adolescent determines the health status in his/her adulthood. Many serious diseases in adulthood have their roots in adolescence. Also, many adolescents do die prematurely 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, early pregnancy and childbirth, human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted infection (HIV/STI) and other infectious diseases, violence, unintentional injuries, malnutrition and substance abuse.
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 Gopalakrishnan4Rights 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” [3].
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