General practitioners’ perspectives on transitional care for adolescents and young adults with asthma: a qualitative study

The transition from pediatric to adult care is critical for adolescents and young adults (AYA) with chronic conditions like asthma. Poorly managed transitions can impact patients’ health outcomes and their quality of life. General practitioners (GPs) can play a pivotal role in facilitating this transition; however, little is known about their perspectives and the challenges they face regarding transitional care. This study explores perspectives of GPs regarding the transition process and identifies the challenges experienced by GPs when managing the transition of AYA living with asthma. Through purposive sampling, 9 GPs and 3 GP trainees, from diverse healthcare settings in primary care, participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was employed to extract themes and subthemes from the data, offering a nuanced understanding of GPs’ perspectives and challenges. Findings highlight ambivalence among GPs in terms of their role descriptions, experiences with transitional care, and views on their potential role to enhance quality of transition care. Other themes included: coordination of interprofessional care, interprofessional communication, patient involvement, and guidance. This research explored GPs’ perspectives on transitional care provided to AYA with asthma. The findings reveal a lack of clarity in role definitions, insufficient inter-professional communication and gaps in training. This hinders optimal support and the potential role of GPs during the transition from pediatric to adult care for AYA with asthma. The transition from pediatric to adult care is critical for AYA with asthma. Poorly managed transitions can adversely affect health outcomes, yet the role of general practitioners in facilitating this process remains underexplored. What this study adds This study highlights GPs' ambivalence about their role in transitional care, identifies barriers such as unclear role definitions, poor interprofessional communication and training gaps, and highlights the need for better support to optimize care for AYA with asthma.