Transition readiness measures for emerging adults with chronic disease: A systematic review

Background: Transition from pediatric to adult health-
care for adolescents with chronic health conditions has
emerged as a critical period influencing health outcomes.
Suitable transition readiness measures are necessary
to facilitate effective planning. Currently, there is lit-
tle consensus about well-validated transition readiness
measures. The purpose of this systematic review was to
identify best practices in transition readiness measure-
ment for adolescents and young adults with chronic health
conditions.
Data sources: Academic databases searched included
PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health
Literature, Google Scholar and Athabasca University
Library’s Discover.
Study selection: Articles were included that discussed
the development and psychometric properties of transi-
tion readiness measures for adolescents and young adults
(11–25 years) with chronic health conditions and/or that
utilized a previously developed measure.
Data extraction: The primary and secondary reviewers
extracted data from the selected articles as per the data
extraction tool developed for this review.
Results: Forty-eight articles, representing 19 tools, were
included in the review. Ten of the tools were disease-
specific; nine were disease-neutral. According to the
Cohen criteria, eight measures were “well-established
assessments”. The Transition Readiness Assessment
Questionnaire was deemed the best measure of transition
readiness available. The literature search included only
articles published in peer-reviewed journals; measures
nearing completion or awaiting publication were not
included. In addition, only English manuscripts were
included, many from North America.
Conclusions: Despite national practice guidelines and
ongoing policy development, there is slow movement
towards achieving a gold standard or best-practice
measure of transition readiness.