Background: Patients with juvenile chronic inflammatory systemic diseases (jCID) are vulnerable to many circumstances when transitioning to adult-centered healthcare; this increases the burden of disease and worsen their quality of life.
Methods: MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and Scopus were searched from inception to March 16th, 2021. We included observational, randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies that evaluated a transitional care program for adolescents and young adults with jCIDs. We extracted information regarding health-related quality of life, disease activity, drop-out rates, clinical attendance rates, hospital admission rates, disease-related knowledge, surgeries performed, drug toxicity and satisfaction rates.
Results: Fifteen studies met our inclusion criteria. The implementation of transition programs showed a reduction on hospital admission rates for those with transition program (OR 0.28; 95% CI 0.13 to 0.61; I 2 = 0%; p = 0.97), rates of surgeries performed (OR 0.26; 95% CI 0.12 to 0.59; I 2 = 0%; p = 0.50) and drop-out rates from the adult clinic (OR 0.23; 95% CI 0.12 to 0.46; I 2 = 0%; p = 0.88). No differences were found in other outcomes.
Conclusion: The available body of evidence supports the implementation of transition programs as it could be a determining factor to prevent hospital admission rates, surgeries needed and adult clinic attendance rates.
Keywords: Chronic conditions; Inflammatory bowel disease; Juvenile idiopathic arthritis; Systematic review; Transition program.
© 2022. The Author(s).