Validation of the Argentine Spanish version of Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire for adolescents with chronic conditions

Abstract

Introduction. The transition of adolescents with chronic conditions to adult follow-up care is an increasingly complex process. Patients need to acquire knowledge and skills that ensure continuity of their care. The goal of this study was to validate the Argentinian Spanish version of the Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire (TRAQ) 5.0 tool in adolescents and young adults with chronic conditions. Population and methods. Descriptive, crosssectional, quantitative study. Patients with chronic conditions aged 14 years or older treated at Hospital Garrahan were included. The TRAQ is made up of 20 items divided into 5 subscales (Managing Medication, Appointment Keeping, Tracking Health Issues, Talking with Providers, Managing Daily Activities), and is designed to be self-administered. Patients completed the TRAQ, as well as an opinion survey about its use and a self-perceived autonomy scale; their physicians answered a scale about patients' health impairment due to the condition. Sociodemographic, clinical and TRAQ-related variables were recorded. Results. A total of 191 patients participated. The majority of patients (96.3%) understood the TRAQ 5.0 questionnaire and completed it correctly, in self-administered modality, in a short time (median: 5 minutes), with little or no help (81%). Patients who live in poverty or have a lower education level than the one expected for their age needed more help. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the overall score was 0.81. Construct validity was demonstrated by testing different hypotheses (all p < 0.05): discrimination by age ≥ 16 years (3.01 vs. 3.34), sex (women: 3.38 > men: 3.12) and having plans for the future (without plans: 3.01 < with plans: 3.34); correlation with self-perception scale (r= 0.49). Conclusion. The TRAQ 5.0 tool is available for use in Argentinian adolescents with chronic conditions.

Getting ready for transition to adult care: Tool validation and multi‐informant strategy using the Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire in pediatrics

“…was removed from the model (Anelli et al, 2019). The internal consistency of the TRAQ-FR global scale (α = .85-.87) is also consistent with previous research, with coefficients ranging from .78-.94 in the literature for the global scale (Anelli et al, 2019;Gonz alez et al, 2017;Wood et al, 2014). The majority of the TRAQ-FR subscales did not show acceptable reliability, but this is often found in scales with few items (median = 4), with fewer items leading to a lower α (Streiner, 2003).…”

“…To date, the TRAQ has been translated into Spanish (De Cunto et al, 2017;Gonz alez et al, 2017) and Portuguese (Anelli et al, 2019). Both versions had high reliability for the global scale and lower reliability for the five subscales (Anelli et al, 2019;Gonz alez et al, 2017). Both versions also showed good criterion validity.…”

“…The transition of chronically ill AYA being a worldwide issue, it is important to translate and culturally adapt the TRAQ to make it available for use amongst non-English speakers. To date, the TRAQ has been translated into Spanish (De Cunto et al, 2017;Gonz alez et al, 2017) and Portuguese (Anelli et al, 2019). Both versions had high reliability for the global scale and lower reliability for the five subscales (Anelli et al, 2019;Gonz alez et al, 2017).…”

“…The transition readiness of AYA has been found to be influenced by their sex (Gonz alez et al, 2017;Wood et al, 2014) and age (Anelli et al, 2019;Gonz alez et al, 2017;Wood et al, 2014). There are reasons to believe that it may also be influenced by their quality of life.…”

Paediatric to adult healthcare transition in resource-limited settings: a narrative review

“…TRAQ V.5.0 in Spanish showed good correlation in results. 23 Hewett et al demonstrated novelty in the rigour of a large RCT context-specifc intervention in Zambia, tailored to evaluate effectiveness of age-appropriate longitudinal support and the impact on behaviour change for vulnerable adolescent girls. 16 DISCUSSION Timing, resources and considerations for equitable HCT should address the structural obstacles that youth face globally.…”