Guidelines for patient education during transitional care for adolescents with jRMDs

For 1 in 2 young people with juvenile-onset rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (jRMDs), the disease continues into adulthood, often experiencing challenges in managing it throughout their lives.

Many adolescents struggle to take responsibility for their disease, especially while balancing school, social life and figuring out who they are and their place in the world. This may make the transition from pediatric to adult care particularly difficult. During this transition, up to 50% of young people with jRMDs discontinue their treatment, leading to worse disease outcomes.

To address this, EULAR has put together a new set of points-to-consider to help young people and their transitional care teams maximize the patient education offering, specifically around physical activity and self-management of pain. There are already full recommendations around transitional care,1 but a gap has been identified around this particular topic.

The new work, published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, includes two overarching principles and seven points-to-consider. These guidelines suggest prioritizing education on physical activity and self-management through early, personalized and flexible support to help young people with jRMDs self-manage their condition.

The central focus is on enhancing knowledge and health literacy, empowering young people to critically evaluate information and engage in informed shared decision-making. By fostering healthy habits and encouraging enjoyable physical activity, the guidelines aim to promote long-lasting behavioral changes. EULAR suggests the new publication can guide clinical practice and support the transition of care from pediatric to adult services.

More information:
Javier Courel-Ibáñez et al, EULAR points to consider for patient education in physical activity and self-management of pain during transitional care, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2024). DOI: 10.1136/ard-2024-226448

Provided by European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology