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. 2020 Aug 12;5(3):487-495.
doi: 10.1002/epi4.12427. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Validation of EpiTRAQ, a transition readiness assessment tool for adolescents and young adults with epilepsy

Sarah J Clark  1 , Nicholas J Beimer  2 , Acham Gebremariam  1 , Linda L Fletcher  3 , Anup D Patel  4 , Lorrie Carbone  3 , Jamie A Guyot  2 , Sucheta M Joshi  3
Affiliations

Validation of EpiTRAQ, a transition readiness assessment tool for adolescents and young adults with epilepsy

Sarah J Clark et al. Epilepsia Open. .

Abstract

Objective: To design and validate a transition readiness assessment tool for adolescents and young adults with epilepsy and without intellectual disability.

Methods: We adapted a general transition readiness assessment tool (TRAQ) to add epilepsy-relevant items based on concepts in current epilepsy quality measures. The adapted tool, EpiTRAQ, maintained the original structure and scoring system. Concurrent with clinical implementation in pediatric and adult epilepsy clinics at an academic medical center, we assessed the validity and reliability of this adapted tool for patients 16-26 years of age. This process included initial validation with 302 patients who completed EpiTRAQ between October 2017 and May 2018; repeat validation with 381 patients who completed EpiTRAQ between June 2018 and September 2019; and retest reliability among 153 patients with more than one completed EpiTRAQ.

Results: Mean scores were comparable between initial and repeat validation populations (absolute value differences between 0.05 and 0.1); internal consistency ranged from good to high. For both the initial and repeat validation, mean scores and internal consistency demonstrated high comparability to the original TRAQ validation results. Upon retest, few patients rated themselves with a lower score, while the majority rated themselves with higher scores.

Significance: EpiTRAQ is a valid and reliable tool for assessing transition readiness in adolescents and young adults with epilepsy and without intellectual disability.

Keywords: epilepsy transition; neurology transition; pediatric to adult transition; validated transition readiness.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors received salary support through the abovementioned HRSA grant and have no other conflicts of interest to disclose. The authors confirm we have read the Journal's position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this report is consistent with those guidelines.

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