An exploratory survey on the state of training in adolescent medicine and health in 36 European countries

Abstract

The development of adolescent health and medicine as a medical discipline lags behind in Europe compared with other regions of the world. This study aims to evaluate the structure and content of adolescent medicine and health training curricula for medical students, paediatricians, and other primary care physicians in the European region. A questionnaire survey was sent by e-mail to experts in the field from 36 European countries, addressing the content of adolescent health issues. Data was obtained from all 36 countries. At the undergraduate level, seven countries reported some mandatory stand-alone teaching (sessions dealing specifically with adolescents), while seven countries reported optional stand-alone teaching. In only 7 out of 36 countries were issues critical to adolescents covered as stand-alone sessions. At the postgraduate level, 15 countries delivered stand-alone mandatory training sessions to primary, secondary, or tertiary care paediatricians, covering most of the five critical areas listed in the questionnaire. In another 13 countries, such sessions were not mandatory and were inexistent in eight of them. The coverage among school physicians was similar but was much lower among general practitioners.Conclusion: Paediatric associations and academic institutions should advocate for a better coverage of adolescent health and medicine in the training curricula of health care providers. What is known: • In most European countries, adolescent medicine is still poorly represented as a discipline.• Experts have recently published recommendations regarding what form the structure and content of a training curriculum in this field should take. What is new: • This paper gives information on the extent and content of training in adolescent medicine and health as currently offered within under- and postgraduate European training curricula, in terms of stand-alone mandatory (versus optional) sessions.• In many European countries, both medical students and residents are poorly exposed to the basic knowledge and skills pertaining to adolescent health care.

Availability and accessibility of primary mental health services for adolescents: an overview of national recommendations and services in EU

“…Third, only eight experts reported that their countries' schools were equipped to respond to mental health crises, while schools are places where adolescents spend a large part of their time and where the possibilities of early detection of mental health and early response to is real. 32,33 Fourth, our survey shows that only half of the countries have policies that promote the training of PCPs in the area of adolescent mental health, a situation confirmed by recent MOCHA publication; 34 this situation could be improved in introducing a few specific training objectives in the training curricula of PCPs and students. 35…”

Transition readiness in adolescents and young adults with chronic rheumatic disease in Oman: today’s needs and future challenges

“…The unmet training needs of healthcare professional in adolescent medicine is a global as well as a regional challenge [ 25 – 27 ]. Adolescents make up more than 25% of the population of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, a percentage that is far higher than that in other high-income countries, yet their health status and health care needs are not given proportional attention in the region [ 28 ].…”

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that females tend to demonstrate higher transition readiness as they tend to mature earlier [ 21 ]. Other studies demonstrated positive associations for transition readiness in higher median household income [ 25 ], while parent education and household size has not shown to have significant association with transition readiness [ 24 ]. On the other hand, some of the advantages of this study is the use of a provider administered questionnaire, as opposed to a self-administered questionnaire.…”

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