Title | Financing health care for adolescents: a necessary part of universal health coverage |
Year | 2015 |
Author | C. Waddington and C. Samboa |
DOI | |
URL | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4271683/ |
Journal | Bull World Health Organ |
Document Type | Journal Article |
Document Availability | Full Text |
Classification | Other complementary UHC initiatives |
Abstract | Adolescents – defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as persons aged 10–19 years – account for 1.2 billion or 18% of the world’s population. Adolescence is a crucial phase in human development, with rapid psychosocial and biological changes and it is often a period of experimentation and risk-taking. Health-related behaviours – such as patterns of alcohol use – affect physical and cognitive development, which can have an effect on long-term health. All these factors have implications for the types of health interventions that adolescents need. However, little is known about the impact of health financing choices on adolescents, a group rarely mentioned in the ongoing discussions about universal health coverage. |