Transfer is not a transition – voices of Jamaican adolescents with HIV and their health care providers

ABSTRACT

Increasing access to antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings (RLS) has resulted in the survival of perinatally HIV-infected children into adulthood. We characterized the transition process from pediatric to adult care by conducting semi-structured interviews of HIV-infected adolescents and health care providers in Jamaica. Using an inductive content analytic approach, four themes emerged: (1) Transition should be holistic and a process; (2) Pediatric clinics were like families; (3) Rootedness in the pediatric clinic; and (4) Need for adolescent-centered services to bridge the gap between pediatric and adult-centered services. Adolescent informed- and centered-transition approach may result in better outcomes for HIV-infected adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Transition
• adolescent
• Jamaica
• pediatric HIV
• psychology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded in part by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through a grant supporting the Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellows Program at Yale School of Medicine.