Sivagurunathan C, Umadevi R, Rama R, Gopalakrishnan S
Postgraduate Student, Department of Community Medicine, Sree Balaji Medical College & Hospital, Bharath University , Chrompet, Chennai, India .
Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Sree Balaji Medical College & Hospital, Bharath University , Chrompet, Chennai, India .
J Clin Diagn Res. 2015 Mar;9(3):LE01-6. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2015/11199.5649. Epub 2015 Mar 1.
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.
青春期是一个快速生长和发育的阶段，在此期间会发生身体、生理和行为上的变化。全球青少年人数超过12亿，约占印度人口的21%。这个年龄段出现的发病率和死亡率大多是由可预防的原因导致的。年幼的儿童对青春期发生的身体和心理变化以及影响他们的健康问题了解甚少且缺乏认识。现有的青少年健康项目侧重于提供免疫接种、性与生殖健康健康教育、营养教育与补充、贫血控制措施及咨询等服务。目前青少年健康项目是零散的，没有一个全面的项目能满足青少年的所有需求。医疗保健服务的可及性和可得性严重受限。缺乏准确信息、缺乏适当指导、家长的无知、技能不足以及医疗服务体系提供的服务不够是主要障碍。干预措施应侧重于提供心理和心理健康服务以及开展行为改变宣传，以引导健康的生活方式，限制与垃圾食品相关的广告，提高对生殖和性健康的认识，教育家长防止早婚、少女怀孕，并就营养和生殖健康问题为子女提供咨询。强烈建议普及青少年友好型诊所。为了具有成本效益，所有针对青少年的健康服务都应纳入单一项目。本综述旨在使利益相关者认识到加强青少年健康服务以满足他们实际需求的重要性。
