Posts
Britain ranks third-highest for
early teenage sexual activity, according to new studies published in The
Lancet. This research and a just-released UNICEF report both make the case for
more attention to the needs of youths.
Data from 40 comparably affluent
countries ranked England fourth-highest for adolescents who had been drunk by
age 13; Wales ranked fifth, and Scotland eighth. Wales also ranked third for
weekly drinking by 15-year-olds. England ranked fourth, with Scotland at
eighth.
The United States’ violent death
rate for adolescents is 10 to 20 times greater than that of other developed
countries; Britain ranked in the middle for this indicator. US binge-drinking
rates were high, and its cannabis use rate topped all high-income countries
supplying data.
Professor Susan Sawyer of Murdoch
Children’s Research Institute and Professor George Patton of the University of
Melbourne in Australia maintain that earlier puberty and later marrying have
delayed societal transition to adulthood, expanding years of experimentation,
substance and alcohol abuse, and early and unsafe sex. Inadequate education and
employment prospects also play a role.
The professors assert that
“marketing of unhealthy products and lifestyles” targets young people, and that
habits begun young result in 70 percent of premature adult deaths. The
empowering benefits of social media were noted as coming with inherent
potential harms like cyberbullying, pornography, sexually explicit texting,
copycat suicides, self-harm, and sleep deprivation.
Upwards of 2.6 million 10- to
24-year-olds died in 2004. Most deaths were due to injuries (including traffic
accidents and suicides); pregnancy and childbirth; communicable, nutritional,
and perinatal diseases (like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS); and non-communicable
diseases (like diabetes and cancer). Most of these deaths were preventable.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
