Pediatrician reported experiences of transitioning adolescents with disabilities

Purpose Despite knowing that adolescents with disabilities face substantial barriers transitioning from pediatric to adult health care, little is known about how pediatricians experience transition-related tasks for their patients with disabilities. Methods The 2023 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Periodic Survey utilized a cross-sectional random sample of post-trainee, non-retired, US-based AAP members to derive a nationally representative sample. Several questions related to transition services were compared. Data were weighted for non-response bias. Only AAP staff conducting the statistics had access to the non-anonymized data. Results Over half of the pediatricians reported discussing consent for care (56.3%), assisting with referrals to adult care (56.5%) and providing anticipatory guidance about sexual health and development (52.7%) to most or all adolescents with disabilities. In addition, 22.7% reported providing all four transition services to most or all of their adolescent patients with disabilities. A majority identified barriers that impeded successful transition of their patients with disabilities. Conclusion While many pediatricians engaged in a variety of transition-related activities for their adolescent patients with disabilities, they also identified numerous barriers. These findings underscore the importance of addressing both the practice and system level barriers that limit pediatricians’ abilities to provide transition services for their patients with disabilities.