Adolescent and Young Adult Health
The Adolescent and Young Adult Health Unit (AYH) leads and coordinates WHO-wide efforts to improve the health and well-being of adolescents and young adults.
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Database collection systems, portals and databases

Comprehensive policies

Developed with input from global experts and young people, and tested in diverse country settings, this guidance is ready to be adapted and applied at national and subnational levels. It encourages country-led, context-specific adolescent strategies that align with global standards but respond to local realities. With steps to turn data into action, it empowers governments and partners to set priorities, design responsive programs, and invest in a healthier, more equitable future for adolescents.

A significant challenge within the ecosystem of evidence-informed policy-making is the absence of a shared vocabulary and consistent application of related terminology. Although various fields – including health, research, epidemiology and policy-making – offer definitions for certain terms, few are specifically tailored to evidence-informed policy-making, and none offer a fully comprehensive definition. As a result, there is considerable overlap among terms and confusion regarding their usage among practitioners and policy-makers.

This glossary has been developed to address these gaps by clarifying the existing definitions of terms related to evidence-informed policy-making and by incorporating newly introduced terms previously lacking proper definitions. 

Designed for frontline health workers, program managers, and policymakers, this guide serves as a valuable resource for integrating quality of care measurement into routine health service delivery and data systems. It includes real-world examples from various countries, demonstrating how robust measurement and monitoring can lead to tangible improvements in health services and outcomes.

Evidence- and rights-based national policies, guidelines and legislation play a key role in improving sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (SRMNCAH), framing the enabling environment for equitable provision and accessibility of quality services. The SRMNCAH policy survey monitors the existence of national SRMNCAH laws, policies, strategies and guidelines and the extent to which they are aligned with WHO recommendations on SRMNCAH. This publication reports on the findings from the 2023 WHO SRMNCAH policy survey.

In the 2023 survey, which was completed by SRMNCAH focal points in each country’s ministry of health with support from WHO country offices and other national stakeholders, respondents completed modules on: (i) cross-cutting issues related to SRMNCAH; (ii) maternal and newborn health; (iii) child health; (iv) adolescent health; (v) sexual and reproductive health; and (vi) violence against women. The questionnaire was completed through a web-based platform that allows countries to submit national source documents (e.g., laws, policies, strategic plans, and guidelines) that were used to respond the survey. These documents are available through a searchable repository.

 

This document is an interactive guide for the uniform collection, compilation, reporting, and use of adolescent health data. See the details of each section below and click on the blocks to jump to the relevant section.

This document presents a list of 47 indicators recommended by GAMA for measurement of adolescent health. The systematic, participatory indicator selection process included five steps: identification of core measurement areas; a scoping review of adolescent health indicators for selected core areas; selection of draft indicators; further assessments of the draft indicators for implementation feasibility in countries, alignment with survey programmes and global data availability; and refinement and finalization of the indicators based on these assessments.

 

This Toolkit includes a searchable database of the 47 adolescent health indicators recommended by the Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health (GAMA), a WHO-led initiative with the collaboration of the UN H6+ partnership agencies.

The fifth round of the Global Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health Policy Survey was conducted in 2018-2019. For this survey, the questionnaire was administered online to each member state via WHO regional offices. Each WHO country office was asked to coordinate completion of the survey with the Ministry of Health and other UN partners. Respondents from each country shared original source documents including national policies, strategies, laws, guidelines, reports that are relevant to the areas of sexual and reproductive health, maternal and newborn health, child health, adolescent health, gender-based violence and cross-cutting issues. Cross cutting issues include policies, guidelines and legislation for human right to healthcare, financial protection, and quality of care.

Demographics and health related behaviour

Adolescents aged 10-19 years represent over 16% of the world's population and play a central role in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Data on adolescent health are crucial to set priorities, to track trends, and to unpack inequalities for adolescents now, for when they are parents, as well as for their future children.

This portal provides information on adolescents' demographics, mortality, morbidity, health risk factors, policies, and the health system's responsiveness to adolescent health needs. It also provides the access to adolescent health country profiles.

 

The HBSC research network is an international alliance of researchers that collaborate on the cross-national survey of school students: Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC). The HBSC collects data every four years on 11-, 13- and 15-year-old boys' and girls' health and well-being, social environments and health behaviours. These years mark a period of increased autonomy that can influence how their health and health-related behaviours develop.

 

The Global school-based student health survey (GSHS) is a collaborative surveillance project designed to help countries measure and assess the behavioural risk factors and protective factors in 10 key areas among young people aged 13 to 17 years. The GSHS is a relatively low-cost school-based survey which uses a self-administered questionnaire to obtain data on young people's health behaviour and protective factors related to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children and adults worldwide.

 

The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) is a self-administered, school-based survey of students in grades associated with 13 to 15 years of age designed to enhance the capacity of countries to monitor tobacco use among youth and to guide the implementation and evaluation of tobacco prevention and control programmes. The GYTS uses a standard methodology for constructing the sampling frame, selecting schools and classes, preparing questionnaires, following consistent field procedures, and using consistent data management procedures for data processing and analysis.

The GYTS is an important tool to assist countries in supporting WHO MPOWER, a package of six evidence-based demand reduction measures contained in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The results from the GYTS assist countries in enhancing their capacity to design, implement, and evaluate tobacco control interventions.

Environmental health

Legally binding controls on lead paint prevent childhood and occupational exposure to lead in new paints and prevent a legacy of lead exposure from those paints into the future.
 
Adoption by countries of legally-binding laws, regulations, standards and/or procedures  to control the production,  import, export, sale and use of lead paints.

Immunization

Persistant gaps in immunization coverage leave children vulnerable to dangerous vaccine-preventable diseases. At least 95% of children should be vaccinated with the first and second doses of measles-containing vaccine to achieve and sustain measles elimination. In 2023, only 11 of the 53 countries in the Region achieved this target.

This dashboard provides information about the status of HPV vaccine introduction in WHO Member States. As per the Global Strategy for Cervical Cancer Elimination, each country should introduce HPV in the national immunization schedule by 2030 and meet the target of 90% of girls fully vaccinated with HPV vaccine by age 15. Detailed information on the definition and data source of each indicator can be found in the Metadata page.

Reported policy and practice of checking vaccinations at school among the 194 WHO members states

 

This workbook consists of 1 sheet with school based immunization

 

As HPV vaccine is recommended for an age group not routinely served by immunization programmes, and since the population impact of the vaccine on cervical cancer cannot be measured until years after the vaccine has been introduced, new approaches to monitoring coverage and impact are needed for HPV vaccine.

This section provides practical tools to keep track of and analyse programme results to continually monitor the effectiveness of HPV vaccine introduction and revise delivery strategies.

 

Mental health

WHO MiNDbank is an online platform providing quick and easy access to international resources and national/regional level policies, strategies, laws and service standards for mental health, substance abuse, disability, general health, NCDs, human rights, development, children and youth, and older persons.  Since its creation in 2014, MindBank has become an essential tool for supporting the work of policymakers, advocacy groups, academics and researchers. 

 

Mental health and substance abuse

The Global Information System on Alcohol and Health (GISAH) is an essential tool for assessing and monitoring the health situation and trends related to alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harm, and policy responses in countries. The harmful use of alcohol results in the death of 3 million people annually. There are 230 different types of diseases where alcohol has a significant role. It also causes harm to the well-being and health of people around the drinker. In 2018, the worldwide total consumption was equal to 6.2 litres of pure alcohol per person 15 years and older. Unrecorded consumption accounts for 26% of the worldwide total consumption.

 

Mental Health Atlas Project of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse is designed to collect, compile and disseminate data on mental health resources in the world. Resources include mental health policies, plans, financing, care delivery, human resources, medicines, and information systems. These resources are necessary to provide services and care for people with mental disorders.

 

This report of a survey completed by 130 countries during the period June-August 2020 provides information about the extent of disruption to mental, neurological and substance use services due to COVID-19, the types of services that have been disrupted, and how countries are adapting to overcome these challenges.

 

Non-communicable diseases and risk factors

The noncommunicable diseases data portal aims to raise awareness on progress in tackling NCDs and their risk factors and strengthen accountability for action by countries. It displays data on adolescents adolescent obesity and physical inactivity [75].  

The WHO NCD microdata repository contains data from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS), and the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS).

Nutrition

The Micronutrients Database includes 40 indicators of the status of 17 micronutrients or micronutrient-related conditions, covering both deficiency and excess. Data on adolescents can be found using the ‘search by population group’ function.

This report assesses the validity, usefulness and fitness for purpose of existing healthy diet metrics as global and national monitoring indicators, presents a comparative assessment of selected healthy diet metrics and discusses priorities and opportunities to improve diet monitoring. This report is an important first step of the Healthy Diets Monitoring Initiative to respond to the need for developing healthy diets metrics for assessing and monitoring diets at national and global level. Data on adolescents (11–17 years) are included. 

School health

The global school health policies and practices survey (G-SHPPS) enables countries to generate scientifically credible school-level data that describe characteristics of school health policies and practices nationwide. The G-SHPPS was developed in order to:

  • help countries develop priorities, establish programmes, and advocate for school resources for school health policies and practices;
  • establish trends in school health policies and practices;
  • allow countries, international agencies, and others to make comparisons across countries regarding school health policies and practices.

 

Sexual and reproductive health

Adolescent birth rate (per 1000 women aged 15-19 years)

 

A tool to expand knowledge, encourage transparency, and promote accountability.