The physical and mental health of children and adolescents are crucial for their entire lives.
Health problems can impact on all areas of life: They affect schooling, family relationships, contact with peers and the search for one's own path in life. At the same time, these stages of life are a good opportunity for preventive or health-promoting measures, as habits developed at these ages are generally maintained over the long term.
We are committed to protecting and promoting the health of children and adolescents.
Insufficient information is currently available on the state of health of children, adolescents and young adults in Switzerland.
A specific collection of the 100 most important indicators in the area of child and adolescent health in Switzerland was compiled for the first time in 2023, with the broad-based involvement of stakeholders and professional expertise (Minimal Set of Indicators – Child and Adolescent Health, MSI-KJG). The MSI is the basis for development of a monitoring system.
The first stage of life is formative for a person's physical, mental and social development. It is therefore extremely important to support families with young children by providing adequate basic care in terms of education and social and healthcare services. This support has been proven to work best when the relevant services and professionals work closely together. This means that those families who need the support most urgently are also reached. Together with the relevant players and institutions, we provide a knowledge base, support the development of materials and tools, and are thus actively committed to strengthening interprofessional collaboration at all levels (national, cantonal, regional and local).
Based on current reporting and research on the health of children and adolescents and the professional expertise of the Federal Commission for Child and Youth Affairs, developments are identified and analysed to target prevention work more effectively.
For 11 years, children and adolescents spend the majority of their time at school. What they learn there and the spaces in which they spend time have an impact on their adult health. The FOPH supports the cantons in establishing health-promoting conditions and interprofessional collaboration in schools. The éducation21 foundation and Schulnetz21 provide a range of materials on behalf of the FOPH that can be directly integrated into lessons to promote the health of learners and teaching staff. They also provide forums for dialogue, advice and selected examples from practice for schools and teachers who are concerned with promoting health in their school.
The following topic pages go into more detail on aspects of child and adolescent health.
A national register for recommended dosages of medicinal products used in paediatrics (SwissPedDose) has been available to health professionals since 2018.
Educated children and youth protect themselves better against sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. They develop healthier lifestyles too. The federal government is therefore supporting nationwide sexuality education in the cantons.
