Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is becoming increasingly common and is also increasingly recognized in children (about 25% of all IBD cases are detected in children). This means that a greater number of children will graduate to adult services in the future. The literature suggests that being prepared for the change is crucial, but it is not obvious what kinds of results constitute success. To that end, the purpose of this scoping review is to provide a concise summary of the research on the outcomes associated with the transition from pediatric to adult care for patients with IBD. The following procedures were followed to conduct a scoping review: establishing the research question, searching for relevant studies, selecting the best studies, visualizing the data, combining and summarizing the findings, and reporting the findings with the help of a second researcher. All in all, 5 databases were searched for studies that met the following criteria: they focused on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); they defined transition as the process of shifting from pediatric to adult care; they followed patients for at least 5 years after their first adult appointment, and they assessed patient outcomes. There were 26 studies in total, all of which had to be reviewed by experts in the field. Success in the transition was characterized by 4 studies, whereas failure was defined by 2. Health care utilization (n = 19), disease management (n = 15), knowledge (n = 5), quality of life (n = 6), and self-efficacy (n = 7) were the 6 themes used to classify transition outcomes. Healthcare utilization was the most common theme (n = 19), and illness management was the second most common (n = 15) used to evaluate transition outcomes. Future studies should actively involve patients and providers to arrive at a common understanding of what constitutes a successful transition.
Source: journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fulltext/2022/10000/Outcomes_in_Patients_with_Inflammatory_Bowel.8.aspx
