The Social Dimension of Adolescent Health: Challenges for Paediatric Research and Practice

Innumerable studies have shown that socioeconomic inequalities have a serious impact on mortality and morbidity. Disease and premature mortality are thus embodied expressions of the conditions under which we live and work. The increasing discussion of adolescence as an independent stage of life has generated a growth of interest in the social determinants of young people's health. The review outlines that a large part of the prevailing diseases in adolescence are strongly influenced by social, economic and political determinants and analyses which determinants and mechanisms are responsible that social inequalities get under the skin and cause adverse health. Paediatrics offers a central interdisciplinary link between the natural and social sciences to better understand how we biologically incorporate our lived experience and thus create social patterns of health and illness not only in societies but also between societies. Such research could contribute to further sensitise clinical and therapeutic practice on the social determinants of health and to integrate them in daily routine processes, such as anamnesis and therapy.