Adolescent Health: an opportunity not to be missed

Today's generation of adolescents is the largest in history—nearly half of the world's population is less than 25 years old—and they face far more complex challenges to their health and development than their parents did. Many young people today are living with HIV/AIDS or depression—the leading causes of disease burden for adolescents worldwide. And hazardous alcohol use now accounts for 86% of the 8·6 million substance related deaths of 15-29-year-olds globally.

The Lancet's Adolescent Health Series was launched in London on March 26. You can hear the expert panel highlighting the key elements of the series by listening to the audio files below:

Lancet Editor Richard Horton introduces the briefing and the guest speakers (MP3 file, 2.9 MB)

'Glimmers of hope'. Glenn Bowes from the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia outlines the context for the series, and emphasises how adolescent health is now a defined health specialty where evidence-based research should drive policy changes (MP3 file, 6.8 MB)

'Adolescent mortality is now higher than childhood mortality'. Series co-ordinator Russell Viner from the Institute of Child Health, London, UK, discusses morbidity and mortality trends among adolescents and discusses the widening gap between biological and social adult maturation (MP3 file, 10.1 MB)

'What young people actually want'. Andre Tylee from King's College London, UK focuses on the role of primary care and mental health issues in relation to adolescent health (MP3 file, 8.5 MB)

'Services should be accessible and acceptable to young people'. Dagmar Haller from Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland discusses the implementation of youth-oriented health programmes (MP3 file, 7.1 MB)

The launch concludes with 30 mins of lively discussion in a questions and answers forum (MP3 file, 31.5 MB)

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