{"id":5261,"date":"2025-05-23T08:58:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T22:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/?p=5261"},"modified":"2025-05-27T09:00:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T23:00:39","slug":"the-second-lancet-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/2025\/05\/23\/the-second-lancet-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lancet: Globally the health of adolescents is at a tipping point; action\u00a0needed to tackle rising threats to young people\u2019s health and wellbeing\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><i><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-5276 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/files\/2025\/05\/Booklet-cover-1-310x416.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/files\/2025\/05\/Booklet-cover-1-310x416.jpg 310w, https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/files\/2025\/05\/Booklet-cover-1-206x277.jpg 206w, https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/files\/2025\/05\/Booklet-cover-1-768x1031.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/files\/2025\/05\/Booklet-cover-1-1144x1536.jpg 1144w, https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/files\/2025\/05\/Booklet-cover-1-1525x2048.jpg 1525w, https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/files\/2025\/05\/Booklet-cover-1-scaled.jpg 1907w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/>New analysis indicates that without targeted action by 2030 at least half of the world\u2019s adolescents\u00a0<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>(over 1 billion) will still live in countries where they are at risk of\u00a0 experiencing poor health across many indicators, including mental health and\u00a0 overweight.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><i><b style=\"font-style: normal\"><\/b><\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Over the past decade, progress in adolescent health and wellbeing has been mixed\u00a0 and uneven. While global rates of smoking and alcohol use have declined and\u00a0 educational participation &#8211; especially among young women &#8211; has increased, obesity related diseases and mental health disorders are rising in all regions.\u00a0<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>The second <\/i>Lancet <i>Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing highlights that\u00a0 today&#8217;s adolescents, the first generation to grow up under harsher climate conditions\u00a0 and the pervasive presence of digital technologies, disproportionately face emerging global health threats.\u00a0<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Adolescents in low- and middle-income countries represent over a quarter of the\u00a0 population and bear a disproportionate share of the global disease burden (9.1%) &#8211; yet\u00a0 receive just 2.4% of global development aid.\u00a0<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Adolescents and youth from over 36 countries were central to the Commission. They\u00a0 call for young people to claim their right to be involved in shaping policies, in research,\u00a0 and in advancing solutions that directly affect their lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By 2030, there will still be over 1 billion of the world\u2019s adolescents (aged 10-24 years) living in\u00a0 countries where preventable and treatable health problems like HIV\/AIDS, early pregnancy, unsafe\u00a0 sex, depression, poor nutrition and injury collectively threaten the health and wellbeing of\u00a0 adolescents, suggests a new analysis from the second <\/span><b><i>Lancet <\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commission on adolescent health and\u00a0 wellbeing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commission co-chair, Professor Sarah Baird, George Washington University (USA) says, \u201cThe health\u00a0 and wellbeing of adolescents worldwide is at a tipping point, with mixed progress observed over the\u00a0 past three decades. Whilst tobacco and alcohol use has declined and participation in secondary and\u00a0 tertiary education has increased, overweight and obesity have risen by up to eight-fold in some\u00a0 countries in Africa and Asia over the past three decades, and there is a growing burden of poor\u00a0 adolescent mental health globally. Additionally, the challenges faced by the world\u2019s adolescents are at\u00a0 risk of being exacerbated by emerging global issues including climate change, world conflicts and a\u00a0 rapid transition to a more digital world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cInvesting in the health and wellbeing of young people is crucial for safeguarding our collective future.\u00a0 We must prioritise investment in adolescent health and wellbeing through initiatives including those\u00a0 that strengthen schools to promote health and wellbeing and to ensure universal access to healthcare\u00a0 for adolescents. Furthermore, adolescent engagement and activism must be central to creating the\u00a0 social and<\/span> community changes we need to foster a more just society and create a healthier planet\u00a0 with more opportunities for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Insufficient and uneven progress\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A decade since the first <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lancet <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing published in 2016\u00a0 [1], there have been global improvements in education, and in reducing global rates of smoking and\u00a0 alcohol use. However, across many areas of adolescent health, progress has been undermined by\u00a0 the COVID-19 pandemic and a chronic lack of funding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a novel analysis using data from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease study [2], the Commission\u00a0 estimates that there were nearly 1.1 billion adolescents living in countries where preventable and\u00a0 treatable health problems like HIV\/AIDS, early pregnancy, unsafe sex, depression, poor nutrition and\u00a0 injury remain a daily threat to their health, wellbeing, and life chances (which the Commission terms\u00a0 multi-burden countries). [3]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This compares to just under 1 billion adolescents living in multi-burden countries in 2016 indicating,\u00a0 alongside population growth, a lack of progress in addressing adolescent health. New projections\u00a0 suggest that, without <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">political will, policy initiatives and financial investments, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">there will still be more than\u00a0 1 billion adolescents living in multi-burden countries in 2030.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Limited progress is evident in several critical areas impacting adolescents. The Commission estimates\u00a0 that nearly one-third of adolescent girls will be anaemic globally by 2030, highlighting inadequate\u00a0 efforts to tackle this issue. Anaemia can cause fatigue,hinder growth and cognitive development and, in extreme cases, lead to organ damage, making it crucial to address for the wellbeing of girls.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Similarly, adolescent mental health has seen a significant decline over the past three decades in\u00a0 countries with available data, a trend exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2030, the\u00a0 Commission projects 42 million years of healthy life will be lost to mental disorders or suicide (2\u00a0 million more than in 2015).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional projections indicate that one-third of adolescents in high-income countries, Latin America,\u00a0 and the Middle East will be overweight by 2030, underscoring the shortcomings in combating\u00a0 adolescent obesity. In 2030, the Commission projects 464 million adolescents globally will be\u00a0 overweight or obese (143 million more than in 2015).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commission co-chair, Professor Alex Ezeh, Drexel University (USA) says: \u201cDemographic shifts will\u00a0 continue to drive global progress or lack thereof in adolescent health and wellbeing. Africa\u2019s share of\u00a0 global adolescents will increase from under 25% currently to more than 46% by 2100. Consequently,\u00a0 progress in improving the health and wellbeing of adolescents in Africa will increasingly determine\u00a0 progress in improving the health and wellbeing of adolescents globally. This calls for targeted\u00a0 attention to the needs of adolescents in Africa.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>New threats to adolescent health\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Commission identifies several significant new threats to adolescent health, emphasising that\u00a0 young people are navigating a rapidly changing world. Emerging challenges, such as climate change\u00a0 and the shift towards a more digital world, are expected to have a profound impact on young people\u2019s future health and wellbeing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today\u2019s adolescents are the first generation who will live their entire life with the average annual\u00a0 global temperature that has consistently been 0\u00b75<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">o<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">C higher than pre-industrial levels. And by 2100,\u00a0 1.9 billion adolescents will live in a world that is expected to warm around 2.8<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">o<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">C above pre-industrial\u00a0 times, bringing catastrophic risks for their health such as heat-related illnesses, reduction in food and\u00a0 water quality and availability, and a rise in mental health conditions related to climate events.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Commission undertook a new systematic review to identify how climate change affects\u00a0 adolescent mental health. The review found that both quick acting climate disasters such as\u00a0 hurricanes and slower acting effects such as chronic food insecurity contribute to mental health\u00a0 conditions in adolescents such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. [4]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commissioner Dr Aaron Jenkins, University of Sydney (Australia), notes \u201cI am profoundly encouraged\u00a0 by our Second <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lancet <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing, which embraces the\u00a0 ecological foundations of human wellbeing\u2014highlighting biodiversity, environmental integrity, and\u00a0 climate as pivotal determinants of adolescent health. This holistic approach underscores that\u00a0 safeguarding our planet\u2019s health is inseparable from nurturing the potential and resilience of young\u00a0 people. For the first time, we are identifying and encouraging interventions that simultaneously\u00a0 advance adolescent health, ecological integrity, biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation,\u00a0 and social justice. This integrative co-benefit strategy not only addresses the multifaceted challenges\u00a0 faced by today\u2019s youth but also paves the way for a sustainable and equitable future.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additionally, the Commission highlights how the digital transition offers adolescents new opportunities\u00a0 for social interaction, education, employment, and health promotion. However, many key social and\u00a0 emotional experiences now occur online, raising concerns about potential harm to their development\u00a0 and wellbeing. While the impact of the digital world, especially social media, on adolescent mental\u00a0 health remains highly debated with limited causal evidence, there is a need to balance early\u00a0 protective actions with avoiding unintended harm by overly restricting digital access.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Actions to address adolescent health and wellbeing\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Commission highlights that current funding for adolescent health and wellbeing is not\u00a0 proportionate with the magnitude of the challenge nor targeted to areas of greatest need.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An analysis of funding undertaken by the Commission finds adolescent health and wellbeing makes\u00a0 up only 2.4% of global aid, despite adolescents being 25% of the world population and making up 9%\u00a0 of the total burden of disease. [5]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Commission\u2019s analyses of the returns on investments in adolescence show they are on par with\u00a0 investments in children aged 0\u20139 years, and that investments in children and adolescents are\u00a0 associated with better returns than investments in adults. The Commission\u2019s exploration of the\u00a0 challenges facing the field of adolescent health suggest that investment is hampered by the absence\u00a0 of global and national leadership, governance and accountability for adolescent health and wellbeing,\u00a0 among many other factors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the first global Commission to prioritise and embed meaningful adolescent and youth\u00a0 engagement at every stage, co-led by ten diverse Youth Commissioners &#8211; aged 23 to 35 &#8211; spanning\u00a0 academia, civil society, and multilateral organisations. Their lived experiences, research expertise and\u00a0 leadership shaped the Commission, while Youth Solution Labs run by the Commission engaged over 200 adolescents across 36 countries to identify key priorities and develop actionable\u00a0 recommendations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Youth Commissioner Dr Shakira Choonara, says &#8220;Young people are navigating a rapidly changing\u00a0 world, and through this Commission we\u2019ve heard the diverse and alarming concerns adolescents\u00a0 have about their health and wellbeing. However, there are also opportunities\u2014and we&#8217;ve seen\u00a0 firsthand and through the Commission findings how adolescents are already stepping up as active\u00a0 citizens and powerful agents of change, from leading advocacy and activism to co-designing policies\u00a0 that shape the future of human health and planetary health. I am deeply inspired by the change youth\u00a0 leaders are bringing to their communities and to the global landscape. Investing in and engaging with\u00a0 our generation will build a healthier, more empowered, and better-equipped generation of future\u00a0 leaders.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTES TO EDITORS\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Commission received funding from the Gates Foundation, Human Sciences Research Council,\u00a0 FIA Foundation, and Exemplars in Global Health. For a full list of researchers and their institutions\u00a0 see the Commission report.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Australian Science Media Centre are holding an embargoed press briefing with author Prof Pete\u00a0 Azzopardi, Murdoch Children\u2019s Research Institute at 10am AEDT on Tuesday 20<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">th <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">May, to request\u00a0 attendance or a recording please contact <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Info@smc.org.au<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Quotes from authors cannot be found in the text of the Commission but have been supplied for the\u00a0 press release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Co-hosted by the Governments of Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Lancet<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the report will be launched\u00a0 at a side event of the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 21<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">st <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">at 6pm CET, register for the\u00a0 livestream <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>References:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[1] <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/commissions\/adolescent-health-and-wellbeing<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[2] <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/ghdx.healthdata.org\/gbd-2021\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[3] Multi-burden countries are defined by the Commission as countries where there are more 2,500\u00a0 Disability Adjusted Life Years in adolescents per 100,000 due to communicable, maternal or\u00a0 nutritional diseases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[4] See appendix 12 for the systematic review on climate change and adolescent wellbeing [5] See appendix 7 for the analysis of development assistance for health\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical\u00a0 Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see:\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">http:\/\/www.sciencemediacentre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/AMS-press-release-labelling-system GUIDANCE.pdf <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">pressoffice@lancet.com\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By 2030, there will still be over 1 billion of the world\u2019s adolescents (aged 10-24 years) living in\u00a0 countries where preventable and treatable health problems like HIV\/AIDS, early pregnancy, unsafe\u00a0 sex, depression, poor nutrition and injury collectively threaten the health and wellbeing of\u00a0 adolescents, suggests a new analysis from the second Lancet Commission on adolescent health and\u00a0 wellbeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6637,"featured_media":5276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5261"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5281,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5261\/revisions\/5281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/cah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}