The success of the UN High-Level Meeting on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health depends on youth and coordinated action to address the digital determinants of health, says DTH-Lab Regional Youth Champion Salman Khan.
On 25th September, Heads of State and Government will meet at the UN General Assembly (UNGA 80) to set a new vision for preventing and controlling noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and promoting mental health and well-being. The Zero Draft of the 2025 UN Political Declaration on NCDs and mental health and well-being lays out a big plan for 2030, but it doesn’t give sufficient recognition to two big changes that will determine its success or failure: digital environments and young people taking charge.
Digital platforms, like social media feeds and nutrition apps, can have as much of an effect on health behaviours as physical environments and genetic predispositions. NCD risk factors are being influenced by excessive use of digital devices and content that promotes physical inactivity and other unhealthy behaviours. The online marketing of tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods, as well as trends led by influencers are pushing unhealthy choices that can increase future risk of NCDs. The draft Declaration recognizes the need to tackle harmful forms of digital marketing in paragraph 27, but lacks a comprehensive approach to addressing the multiple impacts of digitalization on NCDs and mental health, which would also include strong governance of algorithm-driven exposures, screen-time norms and targeted advertising. The Declaration could rectify this by putting the digital determinants of health (DDoH) on the same level as behavioural, environmental and metabolic risk factors. Including DDoH in sections on risk factors, prevention and system integration would show that digital life is not just a way to improve health, but also a key factor in achieving health equity.
The importance of addressing the digital determinants of health
The effects of social media on mental health and the way digital media affects eating habits are two examples of why addressing the DDoH needs to be a core part of efforts to improve mental health and well-being. Algorithms that are designed to get people to engage can make anxiety, depression, and body image problems worse, especially in teens and young adults. The draft’s paragraphs 46–48 recognize the need to fight false information and control harmful digital marketing, but they don’t go far enough to require platforms to be responsible for addictive design features, open algorithm audits or content filters that are age-appropriate. As part of a recent partnership with WHO’s Regional Office for Europe, DTH-Lab summarized evidence on the association between young people’s use of digital technologies and mental health outcomes and proposed a set of eight policy priorities to protect the mental health and well-being of young people. These recommendations could be incorporated into the Political Declaration to provide clear direction for governments.
Young people as equal partners
Young people both live in and shape digital culture, but the draft doesn’t give them a chance to be equal partners. Paragraph 4 says that everyone in society should be involved, and paragraph 18 invites people who have lived experiences of NCDs or mental health conditions to shape policies and programmes, but neither paragraph directly mentions youth as a key group who can respond to these health challenges. Paragraph 28 talks about school-based social and emotional learning as a way to promote health and prevent disease from an early age. Gamified apps, peer-led social campaigns and interactive online modules can help people build resilience and healthy habits throughout their lives. By making youth-driven responses to NCDs and mental health official in the Declaration, Member States would show that today’s digital natives and tomorrow’s leaders are important builders of solutions, not just passive recipients.
Point 39 of the Declaration talks about the potential to leverage “digital and assistive products and technologies” for the prevention and control of NCDs and mental health conditions. No detail is provided on what kinds of digital health tools and services would be most beneficial or what kinds of guiding principles should be followed to prevent technologies from posing risks to health equity. As DTH-Lab’s work on digital first health systems shows, to respond to young people’s health needs and priorities, the digital transformation of health systems needs to address youth concerns, including trustworthy information, data privacy, and inclusive design.
The final Political Declaration should spell out the need for interoperable primary-care telehealth platforms with built-in privacy protections; real-time NCD and mental health surveillance dashboards powered by anonymized mobile phone and community data; and AI-supported decision tools with clear governance in order to turn ambition into action. This kind of clarity will help with predictable funding through domestic budgets, official development assistance, and pooled procurement mechanisms (Points 41 and 44). It will also spark public-private partnerships that bring scalable, affordable digital health innovations to people who need them the most.
Putting paragraph 48’s governance mandate into action is at the heart of these improvements. To stop false and misleading information, control online marketing to children, and make sure that digital spaces are safe, we need oversight groups that include young people, civil society, health professionals, and technologists. If all digital health tools had to have impact assessments and publicly available metrics on equity, safety, and effectiveness, platforms and developers would be held accountable. By doing this, we protect vulnerable groups from harm caused by businesses and increase public trust in digital health programmes.
Creating an actionable vision for 2030
As Member States work on the final Political Declaration, they need to go from general goals to specific promises that recognize digital factors as important health drivers, as well as young people as co-creators. By putting DDoH into prevention, care, surveillance and governance; defining the digital health capabilities we want; and making youth partnership official at every stage, the Declaration will go from being a visionary document to being a plan that can be put into action. We can only use digital changes fairly and reach our NCD and mental health goals by 2030 if we do this. We can also keep making progress after that.
© 2025 DTH-Lab. All Rights Reserved.
Climate Change| Communicable Diseases | AMR | SRHR
Salman Khan is a dedicated public health advocate with over seven years of leadership in youth-led initiatives. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from Grant Government Medical College, Mumbai, India. His work spans critical areas like non-communicable diseases (NCDs), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), climate change and health, and health systems strengthening. Salman has represented medical students on global platforms, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), World Health Organization (WHO), and United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW). With experience at local, national, and international levels, Salman has held key roles in multiple NGOs, including the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA), as the Director of the Standing Committee on Public Health and Liaison Officer for Public Health Issues, leading campaigns that impacted over 120 countries.
