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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Jun 14.
Published in final edited form as: J Adolesc Health. 2023 Mar;72(3):323–331. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.10.036

Table 2:

Summary of the World Health Organization’s Principles and Standards of Adolescent-Friendly Health Care

Principles23
1. Accessibility: adolescents are able to obtain health services (e.g., convenient operating hours, transportation costs and time not prohibitive)
2. Acceptability: adolescents are willing to obtain health services (e.g., confidentiality, privacy, non-judgmental providers, appealing care environment)
3. Equity: all adolescents, regardless of social standing, are able to obtain the available health services
4. Appropriateness: the health services that adolescents need are the ones that are provided, either directly or through referral
5. Effectiveness: the appropriate services are provided in a way as to make a positive contribution to adolescents’ health (e.g., providers trained to provide care for AYAs, evidence-based protocols and guidelines)
Standards24
1. Health literacy

  • programs and social media to promote adolescent knowledge about their own health and where and when to obtain health services

2. Community support

  • systems to ensure that parents/guardians, and community members/organizations recognize the value of providing health services to adolescents and support such provision and the utilization of services by adolescents

3. Appropriate package of services

  • package of information, counselling, diagnostic, treatment and care services that fulfils the needs of all adolescents

  • service provision in the facility and through referrals and outreach

4. Providers’ competencies

  • technical and communication competence to provide effective health services to adolescents

  • commitment to respect, protect and fulfil adolescents’ rights to information, privacy, confidentiality, non-discrimination, non-judgmental attitude, and respect

5. Facility characteristics

  • convenient operating hours

  • welcoming and clean environment

  • privacy and confidentiality maintained

  • equipment, medicines, supplies and technologxy to provide effective care to adolescents

6. Equity and non-discrimination:

  • provision of quality services to all adolescents irrespective of their ability to pay, age, sex, marital status, education level, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or other characteristics

7. Data and quality improvement:

  • collection, analysis and use of data on service utilization and quality of care, disaggregated by age and sex, to support quality improvement

  • support for health providers to participate in continuous quality improvement

8. Adolescents’ participation:

  • adolescent involvement in the planning, monitoring and evaluation of health services and in decisions regarding their own care, as well as in certain appropriate aspects of service provision