The world’s main cause of teenage illness is depression, according to a major report yesterday.
And suicide, HIV and traffic accidents are the main cause of teenage deaths, worldwide.
In 2012, some 1.3 million adolescents lost their lives, according to the World Health Organisation report.
The biggest single cause of death is road traffic injuries, affecting three times as many boys as girls, and causing nearly as much illness and disability as depression, the report says.
WHO welcomes big reductions in death-rates of teenaged girls who become pregnant – but the problem remains the second biggest cause of deaths of girls after suicide, it reports.
The report shows that younger adolescents, aged ten to 14, remain vulnerable to infectious diseases in many places, killing through lung disease, diarrhoea and meningitis.
And it warns of growing problems of "health behaviour" as most teenagers do little exercise and in some countries one in three is obese. Rates of taking up smoking are falling in many countries, it says.
Jane Ferguson, from WHO, said: “If left unchecked, health problems and behaviours that arise during adolescence — such as tobacco and alcohol use, diet and exercise patterns, overweight and obesity—have a serious impact on the health and development of adolescents today, and potentially devastating effects on their health as adults tomorrow."
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