A life of drugs, booze, junk food and sexual promiscuity is leading adolescents towards record obesity and infertility, warn doctors.

The binge drinking, drug taking, sexually careless behaviour of today's adolescents is setting them up to become the most obese and infertile generation of adults ever, warns a report from Britain's doctors.

Adolescents - still shedding their childhood but desperate to be adults - are falling through the gap between services provided for those who are younger or older than they are, says the British Medical Association in a report out yesterday.

We ignore their self-abuse at our peril, it says, because their drinking, smoking and obesity is creating a "public health time bomb".

The report pulls together a vast amount of research on the nutrition, smoking, drinking and drug-taking habits of adolescents and their mental and sexual health. It uncovers "a sorry picture".

A fifth of those aged 13 to 16 are overweight, a quarter of 15 and 16-year-olds smoke, and one in five adolescents may have experienced psychological problems. Teenagers' diet is heavy on fats and sugars and low on fruit and vegetables, which could protect them from disease in later life.

About 11% of 11 to 15-year-olds are said to have used drugs at least once last year. Ten per cent of females aged 16 to 19 have chlamydia - an often unnoticed sexual infection which can destroy their chances of having a child.

"The next generation will be the most infertile and the most obese in the history of mankind and it might also have the worst mental health," said Russell Viner, consultant in adolescent medicine at University College hospitals and Great Ormond Street hospital.

Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the BMA, said the behaviour of teenagers posed "an extraordinary threat to an entire generation". She added: "It is also a threat to all of us. How can the NHS be funded to deal with that kind of health crisis?

"We can't expect young people to think that far into the future. We have to do some of the thinking for them."

The BMA is calling for specialist services for adolescents. "We need to ensure that young people do not fall in the gap between services for children and those designed for adults," said Dr Nathanson. They needed specific and specialised education and healthcare services.

Doctors would like to see direct action to counter the smoking and drinking boom in adolescents. The BMA report calls for a big rise in cigarette prices and a ban on cigarette vending machines.

Binge drinking among young Britons is causing huge concern. "Over time, they have begun to drink greater quantities of alcohol and now have one of the highest levels of alcohol use and binge drinking in Europe," says the report.

Young people aged 11-15 now drink twice as much as they did a decade ago, said Geethika Jayatilaka, director of policy at Alcohol Concern.

Binge drinking was once a rite of passage in the late teens which stopped when people settled down in their early 20s. "Now it is starting much younger and carrying on longer," she said. Nearly a fifth of 11 to 15-year-olds drink at least once a week. "The notion of childhood is changing quite quickly," she added.

Cirrhosis of the liver, caused mainly by alcohol abuse, is killing an increasing number of younger people - 500 men and 300 women aged 25 to 44 in 2001. Meanwhile, the drinks industry is spending ￡2bn a year promoting alcohol.

"We have to be quite strong with the industry in saying they shouldn't be looking to attract young consumers," said Ms Jayatilaka.

Obesity was once almost entirely an adult problem. Now Britain has a young generation whose eating habits and sedentary, screen-watching culture is leading them towards problems first seen in America. Long-term obesity will predispose them to a range of illnesses, from diabetes to heart disease and cancer.

"It is seriously worrying because of the high risk that people who are obese in their teenage years continue to be in adulthood. Children affected by this are likely to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. It's a woeful prognosis for a new generation," said Neville Rigby of the International Obesity Task Force.

Up to 20% of children and young adults suffer from some form of mental distress, from depression to eating disorders, says the BMA report. Some will harm themselves. This is more common among adolescent girls, but is increasing in boys, too.

One study found that mental disorders were more common in young people from troubled homes, but there was also a socio-economic class divide. Children in families where both parents were unemployed were twice as likely to suffer a mental disorder as those where both parents had a job.

Unfit, ill-fed

20% of young people aged 13-16 are overweight

25% of 15 and 16 year olds smoke

1 in 5 adolescents may have had psychological problems

10% of teenagers between 16 and 19 may be infected with chlamydia

3% of women conceive under the age of 20

15% or fewer girls aged 13 to 15 eat recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables

11% of those between 11 and 15 in England have used drugs at least once in the last year

10.5 units of alcohol are consumed each week on average by those aged 11-15 in England who drink

4% of young people aged 11-15 say they have used class A drugs in the last year

13 of every 100,000 people aged 15-19 commit suicide each year

26% of 16- to19-year-old women first had intercourse before the age of 16, compared with 30% of men

Close

Today's Top News		Top Lifestyle News
+China, Canada ink seven agreements ( 2003-12-12) +Greenspan: Pricier Yuan won't help US trade deficit ( 2003-12-12) +US rules for food may harm trade ( 2003-12-11) +Logistics cost of 2008 Games to top 40b yuan ( 2003-12-11) +Nation lifts oil import quotas ( 2003-12-11)		+Teenagers facing a health time bomb ( 2003-12-12) +Xinjiang intensifies protection of Tibetan antelopes ( 2003-12-12) +Expert says Chinese myth on origin of universe originated in south ( 2003-12-12) +What Xmas means to me ( 2003-12-12) +Climate change kills 150,000 in 2000, says WHO ( 2003-12-12)