Meeting the Health Concerns of In-School-Adolescents in a Changing Life-Style

Abstract

Enjoying healthy life through a comprehensive primary health care is a fundamental human right. Thus, health promotion and treatment programmes for adolescents must be tailored to the unique concerns and needs of the population. This paper focused on identifying the health concerns for the in-school adolescents, what promotes or undermines their health and how the communities and countries are meeting adolescents’ needs for healthy life style. Many of the common health risks and challenges facing the in-school teenagers are linked to the health-related behaviours that they adopt considering variations in their cultures and socioeconomic status and inadequate safe health information. These damaging behaviours among in-school youths included consumption of harmful substances, unhealthy dietary behaviours, inadequate physical exercises, risky sexual behaviours, tattooing and piercing due to non-implementation of components of a comprehensive school health programme. The key principles on health concerns for the in-school adolescents were discussed. Towards meeting the health concerns for the in- school teenagers, it was therefore recommended that the stakeholders should advocate for increased resources for in-school adolescents health and improve coordination of its implementation. Member States should support, monitor and evaluate implementation of national scaling up plans or strategies for adolescents’ health in the school system focusing on thorough implementation of a comprehensive school health programme through partnership system.

Keywords: in-school adolescents, health concerns/needs, youth, in-school teenagers, partnership, health risks behaviours.