Credit:UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras
A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) on youth violence highlights that prevention programmes can improve a broad range of health, education and social outcomes – and lead to potentially substantial economic savings.
The report, Preventing Youth Violence: An Overview of the Evidence, notes homicide as the fourth leading cause of death among youth and young adults aged 10-29 years; approximately 200,000 cases are reported annually.
Youth violence can also lead to mental health problems and increased health-risk behaviours, such as smoking, drug use and unsafe sex.
“Youth violence prevention programmes are designed to reduce the risk factors that give rise to youth violence or else mitigate the negative effects on individuals and communities where the risk factors remain prevalent,” Etienne Krug, the director of WHO’s Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention explained in the report’s summary.
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Source & Copyright: UN News Centre