Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health

Recent work by RTI’s Center for Global Noncommunicable Diseases quantified the current and future health and economic costs of obesity in a range of countries, with the aim of highlighting the urgent need for action. With funding from UNICEF, we are developing and piloting a novel investment case methodology focused on child and adolescent overweight and obesity. 

Cervical cancer is highly preventable. But despite this, across the globe, someone dies every 2 minutes from the disease. Dr. Ishu Kataria, a senior public health researcher at RTI, is one of the people trying to change that.

While policies and programs for youth-friendly health services have significantly increased over the last decade, adolescents still face significant barriers when it comes to their health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. At RTI, we are striving to address one of the many barriers that adolescents face in seeking care at health facilities: facility-based stigma and discrimination.

As the second largest country in Southeast Asia, the Philippines maintains the highest fertility rate in the region and the second highest rate of teenage pregnancy and poor health outcomes for newborns. In order to address these challenges, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the ReachHealth project.

There is a huge need to address poor mental health among adolescents. An estimated 80% of adolescents in need of mental health services do not receive care, although the true number is likely higher in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

There are 253 million adolescents living in India – the largest share of adolescents in the world. Child marriages and early childbearing are common in the country, with one in four adolescent girls married before turning 18 and most giving birth before completing adolescence, resulting in poor health outcomes for both the mother and children.

Globally, over 250 million adolescents and young people (10-24 years) have a mental health disorder, such as anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic, and resulting control measures, have only worsened the already significant burden of mental health disorders among adolescents.

More than half of the world’s population is younger than 30 and faces unique challenges. While other age groups have seen enormous strides and improvements in health outcomes, youth mortality has only marginally improved in the past 50 years.

Despite encouraging evidence on the safety and efficacy of HPV vaccines in preventing HPV-related disease, particularly cervical cancer, scaling up the introduction of HPV vaccination in national immunization programs is a major challenge, particularly in LMICs.