Death rates for asthma in 10 to 24-year-olds was highest in the UK among all 14 European nations included in an analysis of 19 high-income countries. Asthma UK said it was "appalling" that people were more likely to die from asthma in the UK than in other European countries.
The UK also had the highest obesity rates for 15 to 19-year-olds among the European nations with the UK having some of the highest inequalities between the richest and poorest when it comes to the proportion that are obese, the study found.
Nearly one in five young people in the UK is estimated to be living with a longstanding health condition, such as type 2 diabetes, the report finds. In England, the figure has gone from 13.5% in 2008 to 18% in 2016.
The UK was also found to be one of the worst countries for young people to suffer from years lost to ill-health and the burden of their diseases, with only Australia, the US and New Zealand being worse.
Overall, the report found the UK to be lagging behind other nations across a number of health indicators. The study analysed 17 measures of health and wellbeing for 10 to 24-year-olds in countries that included Germany, France and Italy, as well as Japan, the US and Australia. The UK sits in the bottom third of countries in nine out of 17 indicators, and in the top third in three. In four of the 17 measures, trends have been getting worse, while in five areas previous improvements have stalled.
"Despite living in the world's fifth largest economy, young people aged 20 to 24 in the UK are experiencing one of the highest rates of severe material deprivation among the countries in our international comparison.Reducing poverty among young people is key to improving their health outcomes in the UK."
Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said the study suggested health services in the UK were "getting something badly wrong".
He said: "I worry this reflects a dangerous complacency. Young people in the UK are entering adulthood with more long-term health conditions and, as a result a poorer quality of life, storing up problems further down the line."
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