Poor health experiences in the Teenage Decade can be linked to ill health and social adversity in adulthood, increasing the pressure on an already over-stretched national health budget.

WH&Y researchers are investigating the pathways that lie between health issues that typically emerge in adolescence—including unhealthy weight, physical inactivity, injury, substance abuse and sexual risk-taking—and adult experiences of poor health and social hardship. We’re also modelling the costs of these pathways to reveal the long-term economic impacts of neglecting health in adolescence. 

Our aim is to provide health administrators and policy-makers with an evidence-based assessment of the personal and economic dividends of an investment in better teenage healthcare.