Lecture 34 Health of Young People

Question 1

What are adolescents and notable factors?

Answer 1

1/6th of the world’s population is adolescents and 86% live in low/middle income countries. They have a fundamental right to health but bear a substantial portion of the global disease burden

Question 2

How does investment in adolescent health bring a triple dividend

Answer 2

1. Benefits for adolescents now
2. Benefits for their future adult lives
3. Benefits for their children

Question 3

What is the pattern for the leading causes of DALYs among 10-24 year olds globally ? Why is this a problem?

Answer 3

Non communicable diseases, especially mental health/substance use is prominent, this is a problem because non communicable diseases last very long in life and contribute lots towards DALYs

Question 4

What are leading causes of death globally?

Answer 4

Mostly injuries and communicable diseases. Transport injuries are number 1 with mostly males suffering from it.

Question 5

What is the leading causes of DALYs in NZ?

Answer 5

mental health and substance use is no.1, and a lot of non communicable diseases

Question 6

What is the difference between causes of death between males and females?

Answer 6

Males (especially in high income countries) die from injury, e.g traffic. In sub saharan Africa causes of death are usually HIV/AIDS

Question 7

What is the Youth19 survey

Answer 7

Cross sectional surveys using random samples of secondary school students. It’s anonymous, confidential and self reported using internet tablets. Gives a profile of the health, health risks and sources of resilience among adolescents in NZ

Question 8

Is the sample used by the Youth survey representative of the population?

Answer 8

Not representative, e.g 5% say they don’t enjoy school but this may because those who dont enjoy school are not present at school

Question 9

What is the trend in poverty?

Answer 9

It is increasing

Question 10

What is the trend with substance use?

Answer 10

It is decreasing

Question 11

What is the smoking trends among maori?

Answer 11

decreasing

Question 12

What is the trend for experienced difficulties accessing healthcare?

Answer 12

Marginalised groups, those in poorer neighbourhoods and poorer schools experienced more difficulties accessing healthcare

Question 13

What are the trends in healthcare need and foregone healthcare

Answer 13

Pasifika have worst observed for household deprivation, symptoms of depression and foregone healthcare. ASian countries and african countries have worst observed symptoms of depressions too

Question 14

What is the inverse care law?

Answer 14

Where the availability of healthcare lowers for those who needs it most but increases for those who don’t need it

Question 15

What is personally mediated racism?

Answer 15

prejudice/discrimination based on race/ethnicity

Question 16

What is perceived ethnicity?

Answer 16

Ethnicity others perceive on to be based on appearance

Question 17

What are the trends in bullying and unfair treatment for perceived ethnicity?

Answer 17

Asians/MELAA perceived as asian/MELAA experienced the worst bullying in schools, pasifika perceived as pasifika had the worst treatment by healthcare provider

Question 18

What are the trends in emotional wellbeing?

Answer 18

Most students have good emotional wellbeing but they are declining, especially among females

Question 19

What are the trends in symptoms of depression?

Answer 19

Most students don’t have significant symptoms of depression, however there was a sharp increase in proportions of students with depressive symptoms since 2012

Question 20

What is the relationship between symptoms of depression and inequity?

Answer 20

There is significant ethnic disparity and the gap is widening especially for females

Question 21

Where are symptoms of depression highest?

Answer 21

In communities exposed to socioeconomic deprivation

Question 22

What is the relationship between symptoms of depression and rainbow youth

Answer 22

There is a decline in wellbeing among rainbow young people since 2012. They are especially high for sexual minorities and gender minorities.

Question 23

What is ‘Thriving at crossroads’?

Answer 23

Looks at ethnic minority groups often neglected in data and also those who have marginalised identities, single parents who have gone through teen pregnancy, are living in poverty and gender minorities. These groups often have very little data and their challenges are kept outside the public eye

Question 24

What are aspects affecting early development?

Answer 24

The experience of young people when they were younger: could have had increased parental monitoring due to parental stress/financial, geopolitical polarisation which results in overprotection and low resilience (snowflake hypothesis)

Question 25

Contemporary - current aspects, igen hypothesis

Answer 25

The decline in mental health could be due to social media however there is no link that increased use leads to poorer mental health which means there must be a mediator in the causal pathway between risk factor and outcome. There has been a decline in exercise, risk taking, talking to parents, sleep and increased bullying. There is also an increasing level of perfectionism, emphasis on exceptionalism and individual achievement. There is also an experience of racism and discrimination

Question 26

Aspects affecting future

Answer 26

Impact of job insecurities, housing affordability, climate crisis, political polarisation, disinformation. Doomer hypothesis

Question 27

What have been the service and policy changes related to mental health service?

Answer 27

Government spending increased by 33% (health services in school, mental health promotion, mental health and addiction service provision, provision of primary mental health care services)
Young people need to wait a long time for specialist mental health services

Question 28

What are the limitations of the Youth2000?

Answer 28

There may be recruitment bias as young people could’ve dropped out of school. These youth are at higher risk of adverse health outcomes, unment health needs, socioeconomic disadvantage and fewer positive connections with supportive networks

Question 29

Why is it hard to determine causality?

Answer 29

Because data is collected at the same time it is hard to determine which came first. This means we need to be mindful of how we are collecting information and interpreting cross sectional data. This is why you do cohort studies and follow up so temporality can be established.

Question 30

How reliable is the information from the census?

Answer 30

Hard to tell because data is self reported, which means that reponses could be untrue and based on socially desirable responses

Question 31

What are the major weaknesses of using technology to collect data?

Answer 31

Because children with disabilities or language difficulties could not respond to the question and other languages were not provided. Also technological methods to get data means that can’t get back to youth who indicate that they are vulnerable or at risk

Question 32

What are the major strengths of using technology to collect data?

Answer 32

More likely to provide honest data and more likely to complete survey