Toward a United Arab Emirates national inflammatory bowel disease transition care pathway: Findings from a healthcare professional survey and development of evidence-based tools

Abstract

Background:
The transition from pediatric to adult inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) care in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is unstructured, creating a critical gap that risks treatment nonadherence and abrupt, unstructured transfers into adult services. We aimed to assess national practice patterns and barriers to inform development of a standardized UAE National IBD Transition Care Pathway.


Methods:
A 45-item electronic survey was distributed to UAE gastroenterologists and IBD nurse specialists via the Emirates Gastroenterology and Hepatology Society (EGHS) networks. We analyzed demographics, current practices, and perceived barriers, performing cross-tabulations between pediatric and adult healthcare professionals.


Results:

Fifty-five healthcare professionals responded (46 adult gastroenterologists, 7 pediatric gastroenterologists, 2 IBD nurse specialists). Only 5.5% reported having a consistently used formal transition policy, while 58.2% had no policy. Joint pediatric-adult clinics were unavailable in 81.8% of practices. The highest-rated barriers included lack of a formal transition program (mean 3.65/5, 54.5% rating significant/very significant), patient inability to afford medications (3.40, 49.1%), and difficulty navigating public–private sectors (3.25, 47.3%). Adult healthcare professionals tended to rate barriers higher, with significant differences for poor communication between teams (
P
= 0.020) and medication affordability (
P
= 0.016). Healthcare professional priorities were development of a standardized national pathway (78.2%) and unified handover templates (49.1%).



Conclusions:
This first national assessment confirms critical infrastructure and communication gaps in UAE IBD transition care. In response, the EGHS Task Force has developed a comprehensive toolkit, including a standardized medical handover template, clinical transition framework, and the first Arabic-language Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire to standardize clinical practice.