Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development that sets the foundation for health and provides an opportunity to improve life chances. Mozambique has a large and growing population of young people, but their health and social indicators are poor, especially for girls.
Pakistan’s adolescent population (circa. 40 million people) is experiencing a double burden of malnutrition, with 21% of boys and 12% of girls underweight and 18% of boys and 17% of girls overweight or obese. This merits a call to action to prioritise public funding and programming to address the determinants of adolescent malnutrition.
Adolescence presents an opportunity to influence diet, which impacts present and future health outcomes, yet adolescent diets globally are poorly understood. This study estimated mean frequency of consumption and prevalence of less-than-daily fruit and vegetable consumption, at-least-daily carbonated beverage consumption, and at-least-weekly fast-food consumption among school-going adolescents.
The framework comprises a set of drivers, plus four determinants (food supply chains, external food environments, personal food environments, and behaviours of caregivers, children and adolescents), which together influence the diets of children and adolescents.
