Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Literature data indicate that up to 36.8% of patients with chronic endocrinopathies, occurring in children, abandon follow-up visits in adulthood, with the risk of major long-term consequences for their health. For this reason, it is essential that their transfer to an adult physician takes place through a well-structured transition process in order to ensure continuity of care. With this goal, the Transition Clinic of pediatric endocrine pathologies of AOUI Verona was born in 2010, first in Italy.

Aims: From the analysis of subjects transiting to our clinic from 2010 to 2019, the main objective of this work has been to assess the effectiveness of the transition process by measuring adherence to follow-up visits, experience and satisfaction with the transition process, the perception of their self-management skills and the assessment of the quality of life of these patients.

Subjects and Methods: 50 patients with 9 different chronic endocrinopathies were included in this study. Clinical data have been collected through the consultation of medical records. Subjects have been offered an online, anonymous questionnaire. Adherence to follow-up visits was assessed by the detection of the last control visit. Satisfaction with the transition process was measured through an Analog Visual Scale (VAS). Evaluation of the perception of one’s own self-management skills and quality of life was carried out through the ”On Your own feet – Self-Efficacy Scale” (OYOF-SES) and SF-36®, respectively.

Results: For the first time a drop-out rate of 26% was found, with a significant variability among the individual endocrinological diseases analyzed (from 0% for Turner syndrome and Klinefelter syndrome up to 100% for hypoparathyroidism) and transited properly. 82% of the transited subjects were satisfied with their experience at the Transition Clinic, with a grade 6 (average 7.9±2.4 SD). There was a good capacity for self-management, with high scores obtained at OYOF-SES (average 96.98±13.30 SD). The perceived quality of life is also overall good, except for mental health, which was significantly lower than the reference healthy population.

Conclusions: Despite the improvement in the dropout rate and the results in terms of self-management and quality of life obtained by the Transition Clinic of AOUI in Verona, constant analysis and implementation of individualized transition process are necessary to ensure their optimum effectiveness.