A concise summary detailing what this focus area is, why it matters, and who it is designed to help.
Adolescent & Young Adult Health
Support healthier trajectories in adolescence and early adulthood with evidence-based nutrition strategies—across schools, communities, and emerging clinical risk.
Overview
Adolescence and young adulthood are pivotal years for establishing diet patterns that shape lifelong cardiometabolic, mental, and reproductive health. We support stakeholders working with teens and young adults to design feasible interventions, synthesize evidence, and evaluate what works in real settings. Our approach balances rigor with practicality—measuring outcomes that matter (health, behavior, and implementation performance) and translating results into decision-ready recommendations that can scale.
Solutions Used
A list of methods and capabilities utilized to execute the work and achieve the objectives within this focus area.
- Evidence Synthesis & Guidelines — To summarize the evidence base and translate it into clear, age-appropriate recommendations and implementation considerations.
- Study Protocols & Trial Design — To design fit-for-purpose studies, including observational designs and pragmatic evaluations when relevant.
- Program Evaluation & Impact Measurement — To measure effectiveness, reach, fidelity, and outcomes across school-, community-, or service-based programs.
- Dietary Surveillance & Measurement — To quantify diet quality, key dietary exposures, and trends over time (including subgroup patterns).
- Digital Decision Support — To develop practical tools and reporting for schools, programs, or care teams when appropriate.
- Capacity Building & Training — To equip teams with workflows, tools, and implementation guidance so improvements endure.
Key Measures
The specific clinical, economic, and programmatic indicators we track to quantify success and validate impact.
Depending on the question and setting, key measures may include:
- Dietary patterns and quality: diet quality indices, ultra-processed food patterns (as relevant), sugary drinks, fiber, fruit/vegetable intake
- Anthropometrics & Risk Indicators: BMI-for-age (where relevant), waist measures (when available), early metabolic risk indicators (context-dependent).
- School/community outcomes: participation, engagement, retention, program reach.
- Behavior & Environment: food environment indicators, meal uptake, adherence/engagement metrics.
- Mental well-being & PROs: quality of life, stress, sleep-related indicators, self-reported health behaviors (when relevant).
- Equity: access, reach, and outcomes across SES/geography and other key subgroups.
- Implementation Performance: fidelity to core components, burden/feasibility, and operational KPIs.
Related Focus Areas
Complementary health domains, populations, and settings that frequently intersect with this area of expertise.
