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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<\/i>.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n