Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-25-2019

Description

Objective: Transfer from pediatric care into the adult health care system is known to be a vulnerable phase in the lives of youth with special health care needs (YSHCN). Recommendations from the literature favor assessment of transition readiness rather than simply pass over YSHCN from pediatric to adult-centered care by the age of 18. Nevertheless, no validated and disease neutral assessment instrument in German exists to date. Hence, our aim was to cross-culturally adapt and to pilot-test a German version of the Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire (TRAQ 5.0). We wanted to provide a tool that can be applied broadly during the health care transition (HCT) process of YSHCN.

Methods: The development included translating and adapting TRAQ 5.0 to German and conducting a pilot-study with 172 YSHCN between the ages of 14 and 23.

Results: Cross-cultural adaptation resulted in the TRAQ-GV-15. Exploratory factor analysis led to a 3 factor-structure. Internal consistency for the overall score was good with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.82. Age, in contrast to sex, had a significant effect on the TRAQ scoring. The administration of the TRAQ-GV-15 was well received and demonstrated good feasibility.

Conclusion: The TRAQ-GV-15 is an easily applicable and clinically usable instrument for assessing transition readiness in German speaking YSHCN prior to HCT.

Copyright Statement

© 2019 Caroline Culen, Marion Herle, Marianne König, Sophie-Helene Hemberger, Sanja Seferagic, Carolin Talaska, Diana-Alexandra Ertl, Gudrun Wagner, Christine Straub, Kiana Johnson, David L. Wood and Gabriele Häusler, published by De Gruyter.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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