What makes it difficult for family doctors to help young people with asthma move from children's to adult care?

Details

Moving from pediatric to adult care is a critical transition for adolescents and young adults (AYA) with chronic conditions such as asthma. Poorly managed transitions can affect health outcomes and quality of life. General practitioners (GPs) can play a pivotal role in helping this process, but their perspectives, challenges and role in facilitating transitions remain underexplored.

This qualitative interview study explored GPs’ perspectives on transitional care for AYA with asthma and the challenges they experience in managing that transition. Using purposive sampling, the researchers recruited 9 GPs and 3 GP trainees from diverse healthcare settings in primary care. Participants took part in individual semi-structured interviews. The researchers used thematic analysis to identify themes and subthemes in the interview data.

The findings highlighted ambivalence among GPs about how they described their roles, their experiences with transitional care and their potential role in improving the quality of that care. Other themes were coordination of interprofessional care, interprofessional communication, patient involvement and guidance.

The study identified unclear role definitions, insufficient interprofessional communication and gaps in training. These barriers hinder optimal support and GPs’ potential contribution during the transition from pediatric to adult care for AYA with asthma. The findings highlight the need for better support to optimize transitional care for these young people.