The World Health Organisation (WHO) says close to 19 million adolescent girls will have experienced physical and sexual intimate partner violence by the time they turn 20 years old.

This is contained in a statement released by the WHO on Tuesday from a new analysis published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

It added that one to six or 16 per cent of adolescent girls also experienced such intimate partner violence in the past year.

Pascale Allotey, director of WHO’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research Department, said intimate partner violence has started alarmingly early for millions of young women around the world.

According to Allotey, given that violence during these critical formative years can cause profound and lasting harm, it needs to be taken more seriously as a public health issue with a focus on prevention and targeted support.

According to her, the new analysis found that intimate partner violence against adolescent girls is most common in lower-income countries and regions, in places where there are fewer girls in secondary school.

She said that it is also common where girls to have weaker legal property ownership and inheritance rights compared to men.

Ms Allotey said child marriage which is before the age of 18 years significantly escalates risks. She added that spousal age differences create power imbalances, economic dependency, and social isolation, all of which increase the likelihood of enduring abuse.

The director said the study highlighted the urgent need to strengthen support services and early prevention measures tailored for adolescents. She said that it would also have alongside actions to advance women’s and girls’ agency and rights from school-based programmes that educate both boys and girls on healthy relationships.

According to her, since many adolescents lack their own financial resources, they can face particular challenges in leaving abusive relationships.

Lynnmarie Sardinha, technical officer for violence against women data and measurement at WHO, said, “The study showed that to end gender-based violence, countries need to have policies and programmes in place that increase equality for women and girls.”

(NAN)