As part of our work to make the evidence base on youth health as accessible as possible, the AYPH research team has published a new article on the main UK population level data compendia that distinctly involve young people age 10-24 years.
We set out some of the main places that researchers, practitioners and policy makers can go to get good information on the state of youth health for this age group.
The resources available vary in a number of ways, including whether they are searchable data tools or collections of charts with analysis and narrative. They sometimes cover different age ranges, or geographical area. But bringing them all together is a good way to see where we need to focus if we are going to improve youth health. The things that struck us included:
- Improving prevention with this age group
- Broadening the discussion around healthy habits
- Improving access to services for young
- Promoting health literacy and health empowerment among young people
- Increasing advocacy for youth health
- Improving the evidence base on youth health
We also note (this is AYPH after all) that all of this activity has to be underpinned by communication and coproduction with young people themselves. There is much that can be done to improve young people’s health, and the returns are lifelong. Good data and youth voice are the basic building blocks to getting it right.
You can access Key Data on Young People’s Health on our Youth Health Data Hub.
Hagell A, Wortley L, McKeown R, An overview of the main messages from key data on young people’s health in the UK, Archives of Disease in Childhood 2023;108:283-286