Adolescence can be rife with anxieties and challenges, but today’s youth face unique threats on a scale encountered by no previous generation, according to an exhaustive new report on their health and wellbeing.

         More than one billion people aged 10 to 24 are at risk of poor health outcomes by 2030, which is at least half the global adolescent population, concluded the report published on Tuesday in the Lancet, a leading medical journal. Adolescents are experiencing rising rates of obesity and mental health struggles, while also grappling with the influence of digital technologies and a destabilized global climate.

         “Even I was shocked by what some of these numbers and future predictions look like,” says Sarah Baird, a professor of global health and economics at the George Washington University and co‑chair of the Lancet Commission that produced the report. “It’s clear we’re already in, and going to be increasingly in, a crisis of bad health among young people.”

         Lancet Commissions are independent research teams convened by the Lancet to examine specific health topics and recommend policy actions. This report was compiled by 44 experts, including ten Youth Commissioners, who reviewed some 550 peer‑reviewed studies since starting their work in 2021. It follows the first report on adolescent health and wellbeing published in 2016.

         “What life is like as an adolescent today is very different than ten years ago,” says Baird. “Given all these other competing demands for resources, attention, and focus, adolescents have once again fallen into the background. It’s time to really remind people of why they’re important, and that ignoring them in this time of rapid change is potentially disastrous.”

         Though there is some good news in the report’s f indings – declining rates of cigarette smoking and alcohol use and better access to education, particularly for girls – the report warns that the health of young people is at “a tipping point” in an uncertain and rapidly changing world.

Internet: <www.nationalgeographic.com> (adapted).