From childhood to adult life with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

The purpose of the pilot study was to obtain knowledge about transitional and transfer care for adolescents with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) in the Norwegian health care system. The method utilised for data collection was focus group interviews. Two groups of adolescents with JIA (N=13) consisting of 12 women and one man, aged 15 – 27 years, and two groups of health professionals (N=13) were interviewed. The health professionals were multidisciplinary groups from paediatric and adult care respectively.

In the qualitative content analysis of the interviews a “Here-and-now-focus” emerged as the central category. Further analysis revealed three subcategories. These were “A random process”, “Passionate health professionals” and “Lack of coherence and continuity”