More than two-thirds of around 1.2 million deaths of adolescents due to preventable causes such as road accident injuries and suicide took place in low- and middle-income countries including India in 2015, the WHO has said.
A WHO report said that most of these deaths could be prevented with good healthcare services, education and social support, and recommended introduction of comprehensive sexuality education in schools and setting higher age limits for alcohol consumption.
"More than 3,000 adolescents die every day, totalling 1.2 million deaths a year, from largely preventable causes.
"In 2015, more than two-thirds of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Southeast Asia," the report by the WHO and its partners said.
It said road accident injuries, lower respiratory infections and suicide are the biggest causes of death among adolescents.
"Adolescents have been entirely absent from national health plans for decades.
"Relatively small investments focused on adolescents now will not only result in healthy and empowered adults who thrive and contribute positively to their communities, but it will also result in healthier future generations, yielding enormous returns," said Flavia Bustreo, the WHO Assistant Director-General.
Data in the report — Global accelerated action for the health of adolescents (AA-HA!): Guidance to support country implementation — revealed stark differences in causes of death when separating the adolescent group by age (younger adolescents aged 10–14 years and older ones aged 15–19 years) and by sex.
The report also includes the range of interventions -– from laws for wearing seat belts to comprehensive sexuality education — that countries can take to improve their health and well-being and dramatically cut unnecessary deaths.
Road accident injury was the leading cause of adolescent death among 10–19 year olds in 2015, resulting in approximately 1,15,000 adolescent deaths.
Older adolescent boys aged 15–19 years experienced the greatest burden and most young people killed in road crashes are vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, the report said.
"However, differences between regions are stark. looking only at low- and middle-income countries in Africa, communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, lower respiratory infections, meningitis, and diarrhoeal diseases are bigger causes of death among adolescents than road injuries," it said.
Noting that the picture for girls differs greatly, the report said that the leading cause of death for younger adolescent girls aged 10–14 years are lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia — often a result of indoor air pollution from cooking with dirty fuels.