Global Adolescent Health—A Trans-disciplinary Perspective is led by Colette Auerswald (School of Public Health), Ndola Prata (School of Public Health), Jane Mauldon (Goldman School of Public Policy), and Eric Stover (Berkeley School of Law & Human Rights Center). Although morbidity and mortality in childhood formerly exceeded that in adolescence, these have now reversed themselves, due to strong gains in childhood health and neglect of the needs of adolescence necessary to maintain those childhood gains. Adolescent health is not only determined by well-documented factors at the individual level, such as behavior, and proximal factors, such as family, school and peers, but also by as yet less well-delineated structural factors (including culture, economic inequality, stigma and human rights). These modifiable, multi-level determinants, the ways in which they intersect to mold youth health, as well as how they can be harnessed for interventions that will improve the health of adolescents are the focus of our initiative. The colloquium on Global Adolescent Health will provide the leadership and scaffolding for an exchange of ideas across disciplines and schools, foster training, and lead to the development of a long-term, innovative interdisciplinary research and interventions agenda in global adolescent health for which UC Berkeley is uniquely placed to play a leadership role.
Photo taken by Alex Goodell for Village Health Works, Kigutu, Burundi.
