title: A systematic review of transition readiness and transfer satisfaction measures for adolescents with chronic illness.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The transition from pediatric to adult health care can be challenging for adolescents with chronic illnesses. As a result, many adolescents are unable to transfer to adult health care successfully. Adequate measurement of transition readiness and transfer satisfaction with disease management is necessary in order to determine areas to target for intervention towards improving transfer outcomes.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to systematically review and critically appraise research on transition readiness and transfer satisfaction measures for adolescents with chronic illnesses as well as to assess the psychometric quality of these measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Electronic searches were conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, ERIC, and ISI Web of Knowledge for transition readiness and transfer satisfaction measures for adolescents with chronic health conditions. Two reviewers independently selected articles for review and assessed methodological quality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all, eight readiness and six satisfaction measures met the inclusion criteria, for a total of 14 studies, which were included in the final analysis. None of these measures have well-established evidence of reliability and validity. Most of the measures were developed ad hoc by the study investigators, with minimal to no evidence of reliability and/or validity using the Cohen criteria and COSMIN checklist.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This research indicates a major gap in our knowledge of transitional care in this population, because there is currently no well-validated questionnaire that measures readiness for transfer to adult health care. Future research must focus on the development of well-validated transition readiness questionnaires, the validation of existing measures, and reaching consensus on outcomes of successful transfer.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stinson
authors.forename: Sara Ahola
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kohut
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Spiegel
authors.forename: Meghan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Navreet
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Colbourne
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sigurdson
authors.forename: Karen Watanabe
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Duffy
authors.forename: Lori
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tucker
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stringer
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hazel
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hochman
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reiss
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaufman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D060305:Transition to Adult Care