Little Global Development Assistance for Adolescent Health

MONDAY, Aug. 20, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Development assistance for adolescent health (DAAH) makes up a small proportion of total development assistance for health, according to a study published online Aug. 10 in JAMA Network Open.

Zhihui Li, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues estimated total and per-adolescent DAAH and examined its distribution by donors, regions, and countries as well as the leading causes of burden of disease in 132 developing countries. Estimates were produced for adolescent-targeted DAAH that included disbursements to projects with a primary adolescent health target and adolescent-inclusive DAAH that included disbursements to projects with a primary or partial adolescent health target and projects that could benefit adolescents but did not contain age-related key words.

The researchers found that the total funding amount was $3,634.6 million for 19,921 projects in 132 countries in the adolescent-targeted estimation between 2003 and 2015, which accounted for 1.6 percent of total developmental assistance for health. Overall, 56.9 percent of all adolescent-targeted DAAH was provided by the top five donors. During the period, the largest cumulative DAAH per adolescent was in Sub-Saharan Africa, at $5.37. HIV and AIDS received the largest DAAH of the 10 leading causes of disability-adjusted life years in 2015, followed by interpersonal violence, tuberculosis, and diarrheal disease. Few disbursements were received by other leading causes, including road injuries and depressive disorders.

“Despite an increasing rate, DAAH composed a small proportion of total development assistance for health, suggesting that adolescent health has gained little donor attention,” the authors write.

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