The master of global public health data visualisation, Hans Rosling, is one of the people I follow on Twitter.
Today he pointed to a tool developed on the website for the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation which looks at the causes and risks of amongst other things death and years of life lost.
As you might expect the data is at a regional level, but you can break it down by age group. So I’ve been looking at what it has to say about teens in Western Europe.
What I take is that the drug and alcohol use remain amongst the highest risks for death for young people in the region.
In 1990 alcohol use was the leading risk of death for 10-14 year olds, followed iron deficiency and then drug use. Two decades later and drug use is now the leading risk of death followed by alcohol use and childhood sexual abuse.
In 1990 the top 3 risks for death in the 15-19 year olds were: alcohol use, occupational injury, and drug use.
In 2010 the list has the same leading risks in the same order, though below the top three intimate partner violence and childhood sexual abuse are new risks.
If you examine the data for 2010 by gender you find that there are differences for the older teenager group.
For girls the biggest risks are intimate partner violence followed by alcohol use, drug use, childhood sexual abuse and occupational carcinogens.
For boys it is alcohol use, occupational injury, drug use, childhood sexual abuse and occupational carcinogens.
Looking at the figures given for the risks for childhood death at a global level it is clear that Western Europe’s problems with drugs and alcohol use by young people outstrips much of the rest of the world.
For the 10-14 age group across the globe the highest risk of death in 2010 came from sanitation, unimproved water, and alcohol use. Drug use was 6th. Two decades before alcohol use was the 4th highest risk, and drug use was 5th.
For 15-19 year olds alcohol use is the highest risk, followed by occupational injury and intimate partner violence. Drug use is the 7th highest risk. In terms of ranking there’s not much change from 1990 where alcohol use was the highest risk, and drug use was 6th.