Adolescence and Health Risk Factors

Abstract

Adolescence is a well-defined stage of the human life cycle that lies between childhood and adulthood characterized by profound biological, psychological and social changes, puberty is the biological component of adolescence, referring to morphological and physiological changes that occur in the child until the achievement of the maturation of the sexual organs and reproductive capacity. Worldwide, adolescents only have in common age, since the changes that occur in it are determined by different factors: genetic, sociocultural, economic and environmental, among others [1]. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines adolescence as the period of human growth and development that occurs after childhood and before adulthood, between the ages of 10 and19 [2]. Adolescents account for approximately one sixth of the world’s population (1200 million people) [3].