CONTRACEPTION, peer education and mass media campaigns are among the interventions that can help improve adolescent health, according to a study published in the US-based Journal of Adolescent Health Monday.
The study focused on primary health issues among the youth—unintended and repeated pregnancy, child marriage and sexually-transmitted infection (STI) including the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)—but maintained that no solution has proven effective in addressing all three targets and added that they did not succeed in all countries studied.
Interventions that can be done to fight unintended pregnancy include direct provision of contraception as observed in China, peer education in India and Cameroon, and mass media campaigns in India.
Low-cost testing and encouraging condom use are effective in decreasing STI symptoms.
Meanwhile, boosting school attendance through financial incentives such as cash transfers in Malawi and Mexico and provision of school uniforms in Kenya and Zimbabwe reduced cases of early marriage.
The study provided a systematic assessment of evidence on high-quality reports for improving the reproductive health of the youth in low- and middle-income countries.
But despite these findings, the World Health Organization clarified that these interventions are conditional.
“While several high-quality interventions were found, they may only be applicable in specific settings for specific outcomes,” WHO said in a statement.
“More evidence is needed to show whether these interventions can apply to other settings or help to improve additional sexual and reproductive health outcomes for young people,” the statement read.
Michelle Hindin, scientist at WHO and one of the authors of the research, noted the same observation.
“There’s no one size [that] fits all solutions and effectiveness often also depends on where and how an intervention is implemented,” she said.
The study, however, noted that these strategies can help in diverse populations and settings.
“[It] shows the need for high-quality interventions to be implemented well, designed well and evaluated well in order to be successful, sustainable, and potentially scalable,” the WHO stated.
In the Philippines, 27.9 percent or 1,299 of 4,643 new cases on HIV are youth as reported by the Department of Health. In June this year, the virus hit 841 new cases, the highest since 1984.
Meanwhile, according to the National Demographic and Health survey, one in 10 young Filipino women aged 15 to 19 has begun childbearing. Eight percent are already mothers and another two percent are pregnant with their first child.