Financing health care for adolescents: a necessary part of universal health coverage

摘要

Adolescents – defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as persons aged 10–19 years – account for 1.2 bil- lion or 18% of the world's population. 1 Adolescence is a crucial phase in human development, with rapid psychosocial and biological changes and it is often a period of experimentation and risk-tak- ing. 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 ado- les cents need. 2 However, little is known about the impact of health financing choices on adolescents, a group rarely mentioned in the ongoing discussions