"They're kept in a bubble": Healthcare professionals' views on transitioning young adults with congenital heart disease from paediatric to adult care

Adolescents and Adults With Congenital Heart Disease: Why Are They Lost to Follow-Up?

Almost 90% of infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) now reach adulthood but require long-term surveillance to recognize and manage residual and/or evolving lesions. Yet many are lost to follow-up. A scoping review identified four specific domains that pose barriers to consistent follow-up. There are multiple issues associated with transition from pediatric to adult care which included-the lack of a seamless transfer, the establishment of a new trusting relationship, promoting the right balance of patient autonomy and addressing knowledge gaps. Additional issues related to logistic problems of time, distance, cost, and the availability of specialized care, are further compounded by the psychosocial factors and the heterogeneity of the cardiac abnormality affecting our patients. Further study of all these issues is warranted to improve ongoing engagement.

Nurses' and Doctors' Experiences of Transferring Adolescents or Young Adults With Long-Term Health Conditions From Pediatric to Adult Care: A Metasynthesis

The transfer of adolescents and young adults (AYA) with long-term health conditions from pediatric to adult care is a multidisciplinary enterprise where nurses and doctors play an important role. This review aimed to identify and synthesize evidence from qualitative primary reports on how nurses and doctors experience the transfer of AYA aged 13 to 24 years with long-term health conditions to an adult hospital setting. We systematically searched seven electronic databases for reports published between January 2005 and November 2021 and reporting nurses' and doctors' experiences. We meta-summarized data from 13 reports derived from 11 studies published worldwide. Using qualitative content analysis, we metasynthesized nurses' and doctors' experiences into the theme "being boosters." Boosting AYA's transfer was characterized by supporting AYA's and their parents' changing roles, smoothening AYA's transition from pediatric to adult care, and handling AYA's encounters with a different care culture.

Differences in perceptions of transition readiness between parents and teens with congenital heart disease: do parents and teens agree?

BACKGROUND

Amongst patients with CHD, the time of transition to adulthood is associated with lapses in care leading to significant morbidity. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in perceptions between parents and teens in regard to transition readiness.

METHODS

Responses were collected from 175 teen-parent pairs via the validated CHD Transition Readiness survey and an information request checklist. The survey was distributed via an electronic tablet at a routine clinic visit.

RESULTS

Parents reported a perceived knowledge gap of 29.2% (the percentage of survey items in which a parent believes their teen does not know), compared to teens self-reporting an average of 25.9% of survey items in which they feel deficient (p = 0.01). Agreement was lowest for long-term medical needs, physical activities allowed, insurance, and education. In regard to self-management behaviours, agreement between parent and teen was slight to moderate (weighted κ statistic = 0.18 to 0.51). For self-efficacy, agreement ranged from slight to fair (weighted κ = 0.16 to 0.28). Teens were more likely to request information than their parents (79% versus 65% requesting at least one item) particularly in regard to pregnancy/contraception and insurance.

CONCLUSION

Parents and teens differ in several key perceptions regarding knowledge, behaviours, and feelings related to the management of heart disease. Specifically, parents perceive a higher knowledge deficit, teens perceive higher self-efficacy, and parents and teens agree that self-management is low.

Challenges in Transition From Childhood to Adulthood Care in Rare Metabolic Diseases: Results From the First Multi-Center European Survey

Inherited Metabolic Diseases (IMDs) are rare diseases caused by genetic defects in biochemical pathways. Earlier diagnosis and advances in treatment have improved the life expectancy of IMD patients over the last decades, with the majority of patients now surviving beyond the age of 20. This has created a new challenge: as they grow up, the care of IMD patients' needs to be transferred from metabolic pediatricians to metabolic physicians specialized in treating adults, through a process called “transition.” The purpose of this study was to assess how this transition is managed in Europe: a survey was sent to all 77 centers of the European Reference Network for Hereditary Metabolic Disorders (MetabERN) to collect information and to identify unmet needs regarding the transition process. Data was collected from 63/77 (81%) healthcare providers (HCPs) from 20 EU countries. Responders were mostly metabolic pediatricians; of these, only ~40% have received appropriate training in health issues of adolescent metabolic patients. In most centers (~67%) there is no designated transition coordinator. About 50% of centers provide a written individualized transition protocol, which is standardized in just ~20% of cases. In 77% of centers, pediatricians share a medical summary, transition letter and emergency plan with the adult team and the patient. According to our responders, 11% of patients remain under pediatric care throughout their life. The main challenges identified by HCPs in managing transition are lack of time and shortage of adult metabolic physician positions, while the implementations that are most required for a successful transition include: medical staff dedicated to transition, a transition coordinator, and specific metabolic training for adult physicians. Our study shows that the transition process of IMD patients in Europe is far from standardized and in most cases is inadequate or non-existent. A transition coordinator to facilitate collaboration between the pediatric and adult healthcare teams should be central to any transition program. Standardized operating procedures, together with adequate financial resources and specific training for adult physicians focused on IMDs are the key aspects that must be improved in the rare metabolic field to establish successful transition processes in Europe.

Impact of a transition education program on health-related quality of life in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease: study design for a randomised controlled trial

Background

Recent advances in the field of congenital heart disease (CHD) led to an improved prognosis of the patients and in consequence the growth of a new population: the grown up with congenital heart disease. Until recently, more than 50% of these patients were lost to follow up because of the lack of specialized structures. The critical moment is the transition between paediatric and adult unit. Therapeutic education is crucial to solve this issue by helping patients to become independent and responsible. The TRANSITION-CHD randomized trial aims to assess the impact of a transition education program on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of adolescents and young adults with CHD.

Methods

Multicentre, randomised, controlled, parallel arm study in CHD patients aged from 13 to 25 years old. Patients will be randomised into 2 groups (education program vs. no intervention). The primary outcome is the change in self-reported HRQoL between baseline and 12-month follow-up. A total of 100 patients in each group is required to observe a significant increase of the overall HRQoL score of 7 ± 13.5 points (on 100) with a power of 80% and an alpha risk of 5%. The secondary outcomes are: clinical outcomes, cardiopulmonary exercise test parameters (peak VO2, VAT, VE/VCO2 slope), level of knowledge of the disease using the Leuven knowledge questionnaire for CHD, physical and psychological status.

Discussion

As the current research is opening on patient related outcomes, and as the level of proof in therapeutic education is still low, we sought to assess the efficacy of a therapeutic education program on HRQoL of CHD patients with a randomized trial.

Trial registration

This study was approved by the National Ethics Committee (South-Mediterranean IV 2016-A01681-50) and was registered on Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03005626).