Adolescent and Young Adult Health
The Adolescent and Young Adult Health Unit (AYH) leads and coordinates WHO-wide efforts to improve the health and well-being of adolescents and young adults.
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Global status reports

Chronic conditions and disabilities

Using findings from research and practice and guided by the tenets of international human rights conventions, this WHO-UNICEF Global Report on children with developmental disabilities provides principles and approaches  to intentionally include the needs and aspirations of children and young people with developmental disabilities in policy, programming and public health monitoring.

The WHO Global report on health equity for persons with disabilities aims to bring health equity to the attention of policy makers and ensure that by advancing disability inclusion, countries progress on their commitments towards SDG3 and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by ‘leaving no one behind’. The report explores health equity for adolescents with disabilities through different angles.

Commercial and other social determinants of adolescent health

The first WHO Global Report on the Commercial Determinants of Health aims to clarify related concepts, present the case for action, synthesise evidence, and provide recommendation on preventing public health harms and safeguarding against conflicts of interest while leveraging the potential of businesses. The commercial determinants of adolescent health are significant due to the substantial evidence of businesses exploiting adolescents' natural risk-taking tendencies and curiosity by channelling  them into behaviours that cause harm and addiction—like tobacco and nicotine use, unhealthy diets, substance abuse, and gambling—to secure them as future customers.

Environmental health

For the first time WHO and UNICEF bring together the data on sanitation coverage and investment, and how it impacts health, economies, and the environment. Citing evidence on what works from successful countries and global guidelines, WHO and UNICEF call for strong government leadership and investment in resilient sanitation services. The report charts an ambitious way forward following the SDG6 global acceleration framework themes of  governance, financing, capacity development, data and information, and innovation to achieve universal access to safe sanitation. 

This publication is a full report.

 

This report summarizes the latest scientific knowledge on the links between informal e-waste recycling activities and health outcomes in children. As many as 18 million children and adolescents and 12.9 million women, including an unknown number of women of childbearing age, may be at risk from adverse health outcomes linked to e-waste recycling. The report is intended to increase awareness and knowledge among health professionals of the dangers that e-waste recycling poses to the health of future generations and is a call to action to reduce children’s exposure to harmful e-waste activities.

 

The report provides updated estimates for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in schools including progress from 2015 to 2019. It highlights the rapid improvement needed to ensure students have access to handwashing facilities with soap and water during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to meet associated SDG targets by 2030.

 

Health related behaviour

The Global status report on physical activity 2022. While over three quarters of all countries reported conducting national surveillance of physical activity among children and adolescents, over 80% of adolescents are estimated as not meeting WHO guidelines on physical activity for health. Uneven implementation of relevant policy actions across WHO regions and income levels results in inequities in people’s access to opportunities and environments that support being regularly and safely active [44, 78]. This is WHO’s first dedicated assessment of progress on country implementation of policy recommendations of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) 2018-2030. It also presents an estimate of the cost to health systems of not taking action to improve physical activity levels and reinforces the urgency to position physical activity as a shared, whole-of-government priority, and to strengthen coordination and partnerships to promote physical activity.

WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2025,  fourth edition explores several indicators of tobacco use among adolescents aged 13–15 years (any tobacco use, current cigarette use, and current smokeless tobacco use). Data, available from the majority of countries, summarizes the current levels of smokeless tobacco use, current cigarette use and any tobacco sue by sex, by WHO region and by World Bank country income group.

Mental health

The Mental Health Atlas 2020 The Mental Health Atlas tracks progress in implementing WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2030, including for the agreed and updated indicators and targets.  The Alas reports on the existence of mental health policies/plans for children and adolescents. 

Nutrition

This report is the annual global monitoring report for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets 2.1 and 2.2 – to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. It presents the latest updated numbers on hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, as well as new estimates on the affordability of a healthy diet. Previous editions  have highlighted several major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition, specifically conflict, climate variability and extremes, and economic slowdowns and downturns. They have also proposed a policy portfolio to address these drivers. However, achieving the necessary scale of intervention will require adequate financing.

This year’s report focuses on financing to achieve SDG Targets 2.1 and 2.2. It proposes a new definition and methodology to measure financing for food security and nutrition, and applies it to estimate existing availability and gaps. The report demonstrates that although achieving these targets may carry significant costs today, not doing so may result in even greater costs tomorrow. Increased financing for food security and nutrition is required, particularly in countries with the highest burden. However, all countries must also use existing financing more effectively. In the long-term, investing in interventions to address the main drivers will be key to prevent future higher social, economic, and environmental costs.

The report includes data on adolescents (10–19 years), adults (20–59 years).

 

School health

This ground-breaking report brings together, for the first time, multiple data sources to provide a global overview of school health and nutrition policies and programmes, showing that these are a practical and affordable way to support learners’ well-being and development. 

TB

Each year, the WHO Global TB Report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease, at global, regional and country levels. The 2023 report highlights that an estimated 1.25 million children and young adolescents (aged 0-14 years) fell ill with TB in 2022, which is 12% of the global TB burden. In 2022, 16% of the people who died from TB globally were children and young adolescents, a disproportionate percentage compared to the disease burden in this age group. 

Violence prevention

The Global status report on preventing violence against children 2020 charts countries’ progress towards the SDGs aimed at ending violence against children. Jointly published by WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Violence against Children, and the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children, it collates inputs from over 1000 decision-makers in 155 countries who assessed their violence prevention status against the evidence-based approaches set out in INSPIRE: Seven strategies for ending violence against children. The report shows that while many of the participating countries are taking some action, government officials from these same countries acknowledge that their efforts are clearly insufficient to achieve the SDG targets. The report concludes with recommendations for boosting INSPIRE implementation efforts and accelerating national progress.

WASH

The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and is responsible for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to WASH. This data update presents national, regional and global estimates for WASH in schools up to the year 2021, and includes additional analysis on efforts to prepare schools for future pandemics and provide disability-inclusive WASH services in schools.