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Transition of Care for Adolescents from Child to Adult Health Services: A Systematic Review

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Transition from Pediatric to Adult Healthcare Services for Adolescents and Young Adults with Long-term Conditions

Abstract

The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve the transition of care for adolescents from paediatric to adult health services and explore what factors might contribute to their effectiveness. Studies included in this review were limited to randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled before- and after-studies (CBAs), and interrupted time-series studies (ITSs). These studies were selected for review as they were designed to evaluate the effectiveness of transition interventions to facilitate the transfer of care for adolescents with long-term conditions from paediatric to adult health services. Other eligibility criteria for inclusion in the review were: (a) adolescents with long-term conditions from 12 to 19 years; (b) the intervention model designed to improve transition services for adolescents who transitioned from paediatric to adult health services; (c) services provided were not discipline-specific. The search strategy ultimately yielded 5 studies with 358 participants. The five RCTs evaluated patient outcomes of interventions tested. Interventions varied as to the intervention goals, intervention settings, dose (i.e. number of sessions), modality of the intervention itself, method of delivery, A variety of outcomes were measured using a number of different instruments; patient outcomes were most frequently measured. Conclusions of the review indicated that evidence to support the use of transition model is lacking as none of the studies reviewed were rigorously evaluated. The challenges in testing transition model are evident as this intervention is complex in its application and requires a prolonged period of testing to evaluate effectiveness. It is apparent that more empirical testing of transition service models is needed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Philip O’Neill for his assistance with the screening of evidence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Fiona Campbell & Katie Biggs

  2. School of Health Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Susie Aldiss

Authors
  1. Fiona Campbell
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  2. Susie Aldiss
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  3. Katie Biggs
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fiona Campbell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Keck School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Cecily L. Betz

  2. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

    Imelda T. Coyne

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Campbell, F., Aldiss, S., Biggs, K. (2020). Transition of Care for Adolescents from Child to Adult Health Services: A Systematic Review. In: Betz, C., Coyne, I. (eds) Transition from Pediatric to Adult Healthcare Services for Adolescents and Young Adults with Long-term Conditions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23384-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23384-6_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-23386-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-23384-6

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