TRANSCRIPT:
Melanie Funk's twin boys Matthew and Harry were born with severe eczema, a chronic skin condition the Gold-coast based mum says can be debilitating.
"My boys, they've faced painful skin flareups and sleep disruption, difficulty concentrating on schoolwork due to fatigue, isolation from sports and social events due to bad flareups and anxiety and low confidence at times."
During the twins' early years, Melanie says she found a big gap in the support available for families and people living with eczema.
That compelled her to establish Eczema Support Australia, a national charity that bridges this gap.
Today, the 15 year old twins are managing the condition with advanced treatments - but Melanie says teenage-hood comes with a number of challenges that can trigger flare-ups.
"Stress and anxiety, especially during exams. Hormonal changes during adolescence can be a big one. Heat, sweat, allergens, and sometimes certain foods, poor sleep and even screen time related activities."
A new study has now established just how many teenagers like Melanie's twins are living with a chronic condition.
The research published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health has found almost half of the 5000 teens they surveyed - or 46 per cent - are living with either a chronic disease - such as eczema, asthma, hayfever and food allergies - or developmental conditions like autism and ADHD.
The research has observed a link to poor mental health and unhealthy habits.
These (habits) include excessive screen time, ultra-processed foods, smoking and alcohol, sleep deprivation.
Lead author Bridie Osman from the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney says it remains unclear just how they are connected - but the extent of these habits is troubling.
"So that statistic is quite high and it's quite shocking to see the magnitude of the issue that we are facing at the moment. It could be down to the fact that Australia has reached skyrocketing levels of ultra processed food intake, and with mental health disorders in Australia, they're also at an all time high."
Bridie Osman says asthma, hay fever and eczema among the chronic diseases with the highest prevalence, whilst the most common developmental condition is ADHD.
"These diseases, they're all variable with their pathology, so they can be genetic or they can be caused by our lifestyles so it's always hard to determine which one comes first. But what we do know is that regardless of how these diseases come about, they do get worse by worse mental health and behavioural factors."
The researchers, as well as experts not involved in the study, have emphasised the unhealthy habits are not the cause of such conditions.
Professor Susan Sawyer is the Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.
She says the potential link highlights a need for further research.
"Australia's long been recognised to have a much heavier burden of atopic disease in terms of asthma, hay fever, and in particular food allergy. We are known as the food allergy capital of the world. To some extent. This may be reflections of our genetics, but more typically people think that this is reflecting something about our physical environments as well."
Professor Sawyer also says there needs to be better focus on prevention.
"We know that children's and young people's health behaviours, health risks, and indeed their health outcomes are shaped not only by their biology and their genetics, but also by their physical environments and social environments, including their online environments. So in addition to supporting families to try and provide the healthiest social and nutritional environments for young people that we know, they desperately try to do data like these are really suggesting that stronger attention to prevention is needed."
Meanwhile Dr Osman says chronic conditions in young people are often overlooked as a serious public health concern.
She says the study shows the importance of paying closer attention.
"Most research funding and public health campaigns goes into older adults where we are seeing these more sinister chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer because they do cause more instant effects and mortality, so it does mean that we have reduced funding and research within adolescents so it's really important to start gathering this information, because ultimately the diseases that we contract at this age they can track into adulthood, and the ongoing inflammation processes that happen can cause these long-term sinister diseases."
