Improving the transition from paediatric to adult healthcare: a scoping review on the recommendations of young adults with lived experience

Abstract

Objective The goal of this review was to identify recommendations within the literature on how to improve the transition from paediatric to adult healthcare from the perspective of young adults (YAs) living with chronic conditions who have gone through the process.Design This review was conducted in accordance with JBI methodology for scoping reviews.Search strategy We searched MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), PsycINFO (EBSCO) and EMBASE (Elsevier) databases, and conducted a grey literature search for relevant material. The databases were searched in December 2019, and re-searched June 2020 and September 2020, while the grey literature was searched in April 2020. This scoping review focused on the recommendations of YAs with chronic conditions who have transitioned from paediatric to adult healthcare, in any setting (eg, hospital, clinic or community), and across all sectors (eg, health, education and social services).Results Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria for this review. These studies included YAs with 14 different chronic conditions, receiving primary health services in North America (67%) and Europe (33%). YAs’ recommendations for improving the transition from paediatric to adult healthcare (n=number of studies reported) included: improving continuity of care (n=12); facilitating patient-centred care (n=9); building strong support networks (n=11) and implementing transition education preparedness training (n=7).Conclusion Review findings can benefit service delivery by addressing important barriers to health, education, and social services for youth transitioning to adult healthcare.