Adolescent health

Fact sheet

• More than 2.6 million young people aged 10 to 24 die each year, mostly due to preventable causes.
• About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth every year.
• Young people, 15 to 24 years old, accounted for 40% of all new HIV infections among adults in 2009.
• In any given year, about 20% of adolescents will experience a mental health problem, most commonly depression or anxiety.
• An estimated 150 million young people use tobacco.
• Approximately 430 young people aged 10 to 24 die every day through interpersonal violence.
• Globally, road traffic injuries kill an estimated 700 young people every day.

The situation

• Young people represent 30% of the population.
• The Government recognizes that promoting healthy practices during adolescence and taking steps to better protect young people from health risks is critical to development and to the prevention of health problems in adulthood.
• Overall school enrollment is high. According to the Survey Assessment of Vietnamese Youth, Round 2 (SAVY 2), 99% of males and 98% of females aged 14-25 had enrolled in school.
• On average, Viet Namese youths spent 7.3 years in school.
• According to the 2009 census, the mean age at marriage for men was 26.6 and for women, 22.8.
• Despite access to family planning services, abortion rates among young people are high. In SAVY 2, 8.4% (82 out of 977) of sexually active women aged 15-24 reported having had an abortion.
• Other reports suggest that abortions by unmarried young women make up between 10% and 20% of all abortions in urban areas.
• It was estimated that the HIV prevalence among youths aged 15-24 was 0.9% for males and 0.2% for females.
• More than 34% of schools provided life-skills based HIV education in the 2009 academic year.
• SAVY 2 also found that more young wives in urban areas (8.4%) reported being beaten by their husbands than in rural areas (5.3%).
• 20.4% of respondent aged 14-25 had smoked tobacco.

WHO's response

• WHO supports the Ministry of Health (MOH) with the formulation of policies and programmes, their implementation, and monitoring and evaluation to improve the health status of young people.
• WHO assisted the MOH in conducting a rapid review of young people's health issues, including estimating the number of young people who die, experience illness or injury, and the number who engage in behaviour that can lead to illness or injury in the future.
• The review looked at the policies and factors that hinder or help the health and development of adolescents; and identified the most effective ways of promoting good health among young people, as well as preventing health problems and responding to them when they occur.
• Since 2008, WHO has provided technical and financial support to the MOH to set up Adolescent and Youth Friendly Services in 20 provinces.
• WHO helped the MOH adapt, field test and disseminate the Orientation Package for Adolescent and Youth Friendly Services, to enhance the capacity of staff to provide quality services to young pople.
• In collaboration with other UN agencies, WHO supported the MOH and the General Statistics Office to conduct the Survey Assessment of Vietnamese Youth (SAVY) in 2003 and 2008.
• WHO collaborates with other UN agencies and partners as a member of the Reproductive Health Interagency Group and other channels in raising awareness of young people's issues and in building a shared understanding among partners on what needs to be done to promote the health of young people.