A growing adolescent population in the Pacific faces far greater health challenges today than 25 years ago, and investment in young peoples' health has not kept pace.
A new study, which tracked the progress of adolescent health in 195 countries between 1990 and 2016, contained some grim findings for the Pacific.
American Samoa has the highest rate of adolescent obesity of all 195 countries studied, while Samoa and Tonga are not far behind.
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati and Federated States of Micronesia are most at risk of non-communicable diseases, while PNG has the world's highest rates of smoking adolescent males.
For many of these countries, non-communicable diseases barely registered 25 years ago.
The study's leader author, Peter Azzopardi from Australia's Burnet Institute, explained the findings to Jamie Tahana.
Photo: RNZ/Daniela Maoate-Cox
