Background: Youth with chronic medical conditions (YCMC) use alcohol at levels similar to their healthy peers but face elevated risk for adverse health consequences. As salient reasons to abstain from or limit drinking (RALD) among YCMC are unknown, we sought to identify clusters of RALD and test associations with use behaviors.

Methods: Eligible YCMC (ages 9-18) recruited from outpatient clinics reported their use behaviors and importance of potential RALD. Cluster analysis was used to discern RALD patterns, which were examined as predictors of alcohol use using multivariate regression.

Results: Among 398 participants, 30.9% reported past year alcohol use. Concerns about impacts on medications, school, and disease status were the most frequently endorsed RALD; prior negative experiences with alcohol and family history were the least frequently endorsed. Five RALD clusters were identified for all YCMC and 2 for recent drinkers. Compared to the cluster with high endorsement of multiple general and health-related RALD, those predominantly citing concerns about addiction and those not strongly endorsing any RALD consistently reported greater alcohol use. Among recent drinkers, the cluster characterized by low concern across multiple RALD also consistently reported greater alcohol use compared to their counterparts expressing moderate concern.

Conclusions: For YCMC, RALD are complex but endorsement of multiple general and health-related RALD is associated with less use, and health concerns are especially prevalent. More research is needed to understand how salient RALD can inform tailored interventions that aim to delay and reduce substance use and improve health outcomes for YCMC.

Background: Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is a clinical guideline that can help delay, prevent or reduce substance use behaviors in youth. We aimed to describe the experiences of middle and high school (MS and HS) students attending a school with an SBIRT program.

Methods: This was a survey study conducted in 2 school districts that implemented SBIRT programs prior to statewide roll-out of mandatory school SBIRT in Massachusetts, in which students were asked about past-year substance use and then received brief counseling by a school professional. Students in grades that received SBIRT were subsequently invited to complete an electronic questionnaire about their SBIRT experience.

Results: A total of 890 students were included in the study (63.7% MS, 36.3% HS). Experiences of school SBIRT were predominantly positive: 74.0% of participants reported that the information received was useful. Students who reported having used substances were less likely to agree that "schools should screen for substance use" than students who did not report substance use (AOR: 0.39, 95%CI: 0.29-0.53).

Conclusions: Most respondents found SBIRT of value, though students with past-year substance use were less positive about the experience. More research is needed to optimize SBIRT delivery in schools.

Background
Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) often have poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL) despite advances in treatment. Patient-centered research may shed light on how patient experiences of treatment and disease contribute to HRQOL, pinpointing directions for improving care and enhancing outcomes.

Methods
Parent proxies of youth enrolled in the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) Registry shared patient-reported outcomes about their child’s HRQOL and experiences of disease and treatment burden (pain interference, morning stiffness, history of medication side effects and methotrexate intolerance). Contributions of these measures to HRQOL were estimated using generalized estimating equations accounting for site and patient demographics.

Results
Patients (N = 180) were 81.1% white non-Hispanic and 76.7% female. Mean age was 11.8 (SD = 3.6) years, mean disease duration was 7.7 years (SD = 3.5). Mean Total Pediatric Quality of Life was 76.7 (SD = 18.2). Mean pain interference score was 50.1 (SD = 11.1). Nearly one-in-five (17.8%) youth experienced >15 min of morning stiffness on a typical day, more than one quarter (26.7%) reported ≥1 serious medication side effect and among 90 methotrexate users, 42.2% met criteria for methotrexate intolerance. Measures of disease and treatment burden were independently negatively associated with HRQOL (all p-values <0.01). Negative associations among measures of treatment burden and HRQOL were attenuated after controlling for disease burden and clinical characteristics but remained significant.

Conclusions
For youth with JIA, HRQOL is multidimensional, reflecting disease as well as treatment factors. Adverse treatment experiences undermine HRQOL even after accounting for disease symptoms and disease activity and should be assessed routinely to improve wellbeing.
 

OBJECTIVE: Adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for alcohol and marijuana use. This study's objective is to describe adolescents' ADHD-specific reasons for marijuana use, knowledge of ADHD-specific alcohol risks, and reported subspecialty provider messaging/education regarding alcohol use among adolescents with ADHD. METHODS: Youths with ADHD aged 12 to 18 years completed a survey about alcohol and marijuana use, ADHD-specific reasons for marijuana use, knowledge of ADHD-specific alcohol risks, and reported provider messaging/education regarding alcohol use. We assessed knowledge toward substance use using descriptive statistics. We used χ and t tests to determine whether knowledge or provider messaging/education differed by sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: Of the 96 participants, 61.5% were male, average age was 15.7 years; 31.3% reported past-year alcohol use and 20.8% reported past-year marijuana use. The majority (65.2%) said "no/don't know" to both "Can alcohol make ADHD symptoms worse?" and "Can alcohol interfere or get in the way of the medications you take?" Older participants were more likely to correctly answer the medication question "yes." Despite most (74%) participants reporting that their provider asked about alcohol use, few youth reported that their providers gave specific messages/education that alcohol could make ADHD symptoms worse (9.4%) or interfere with ADHD medications (14.6%); older participants and past-year alcohol users were more likely to have received these alcohol-specific messages. CONCLUSION: Many youth with ADHD are unaware of the risks of alcohol use in relation to ADHD and providers are not consistently discussing these risks in the context of clinical ADHD care.

BACKGROUND: In an effort to reduce barriers to screening for alcohol use in pediatric primary care, the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) developed a two-question Youth Alcohol Screening Tool derived from population-based survey data. It is unknown whether this screening tool, designed for use with general populations, accurately identifies risk among youth with chronic medical conditions (YCMC). This growing population, which comprises nearly one in four youth in the US, faces a unique constellation of drinking-related risks. METHOD: To validate the NIAAA Youth Alcohol Screening Tool in a population of YCMC, we performed a cross-sectional validation study with a sample of 388 youth ages 9-18 years presenting for routine subspecialty care at a large children's hospital for type 1 diabetes, persistent asthma, cystic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease, or juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Participants self-administered the NIAAA Youth Alcohol Screening Tool and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children as a criterion standard measure of alcohol use disorders (AUD). Receiver operating curve analysis was used to determine cut points for identifying youth at moderate and highest risk for an AUD. RESULTS: Nearly one third of participants (n = 118; 30.4%) reported alcohol use in the past year; 86.4% (106) of past year drinkers did not endorse any AUD criteria, 6.8% (n = 8) of drinkers endorsed a single criterion, and 6.8% of drinkers met criteria for an AUD. Using the NIAAA tool, optimal cut points found to identify youth at moderate and highest risk for an AUD were ≥ 6 and ≥12 drinking days in the past year, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The NIAAA Youth Alcohol Screening Tool is highly efficient for detecting alcohol use and discriminating disordered use among YCMC. This brief screen appears feasible for use in specialty care to ascertain alcohol-related risk that may impact adversely on health status and disease management.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescence and emergent adulthood are periods of peak prevalence for substance use that pose risks for short- and long-term health harm, particularly for youth with chronic medical conditions (YCMC) who are transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. As there have been no nationally representative studies of substance use during this period for these medically vulnerable youth, the authors sought to examine onset and intensification of these behaviors for a national sample of youth with and without chronic conditions. METHODS: Longitudinal data are from 2,719 youth between the ages of 12 and 26 years interviewed from 2002 to 2011 for the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Child Development and Transition to Adulthood Supplements, a nationally representative, population-based survey. Multivariate generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate patterns of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use during adolescence and emergent adulthood for youth with and without chronic conditions, adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: Overall, 68.8%, 44.3%, and 47.8% of youth reported ever trying alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, respectively. Among users, 42.2%, 73.4%, and 50.3% of youth reported binge drinking, regular cigarette use, and recent marijuana use, respectively. YCMC were more likely to engage in any and heavier substance use; transition years and early adulthood were periods of peak risk for YCMC compared with their healthy peers. CONCLUSIONS: Substance use among YCMC during adolescence and emergent adulthood is a substantial concern. Increased prevention and case detection are in order to address these behaviors and promote optimal health outcomes for medically vulnerable youth.

IMPORTANCE: A timely, well-coordinated transfer from pediatric- to adult-focused primary care is an important component of high-quality health care, especially for youths with chronic health conditions. Current recommendations suggest that primary-care transfers for youths occur between 18 and 21 years of age. However, the current epidemiology of transfer timing is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To examine the timing of transfer to adult-focused primary care providers (PCPs), the time between last pediatric-focused and first adult-focused PCP visits, and the predictors of transfer timing. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective cohort study of patients insured by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC), a large not-for-profit health plan. Our sample included 60 233 adolescents who were continuously enrolled in HPHC from 16 to at least 18 years of age between January 2000 and December 2012. Pediatric-focused PCPs were identified by the following provider specialty types, but no others: pediatrics, adolescent medicine, or pediatric nurse practitioner. Adult-focused PCPs were identified by having any provider type that sees adult patients. Providers with any specialty provider designation (eg, gastroenterology or gynecology) were not considered PCPs. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression to model age at first adult-focused PCP visit and time from the last pediatric-focused to the first adult-focused PCP visit (gap) for any type of office visit and for those that were preventive visits. RESULTS: Younger age at transfer was observed for female youths (hazard ratio [HR], 1.32 [95% CI, 1.29-1.36]) who had complex (HR, 1.06 [95% CI, 1.01-1.11]) or noncomplex (HR, 1.08 [95% CI, 1.05-1.12]) chronic conditions compared with those who had no chronic conditions. Transfer occurred at older ages for youths who lived in lower-income neighborhoods compared with those who lived in higher-income neighborhoods (HR, 0.89 [95% CI, 0.83-0.95]). The gap between last pediatric-focused to first adult-focused PCP visit was shorter for female youths than male youths (HR, 1.57 [95% CI, 1.53-1.61]) and youths with complex (HR, 1.35 [95% CI, 1.28-1.41]) or noncomplex (HR, 1.24 [95% CI, 1.20-1.28]) chronic conditions. The gap was longer for youths living in lower-income neighborhoods than for those living in higher-income neighborhoods (HR, 0.80 [95% CI, 0.75-0.85]). Multivariable models showed an adjusted median age at transfer of 21.8 years for office visits and 23.1 years for preventive visits and an adjusted median gap length of 20.5 months for office visits and 41.6 months for preventive visits. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Most youths are transferring care later than recommended and with gaps of more than a year. While youths with chronic conditions have shorter gaps, they may need even shorter transfer intervals to ensure continuous access to care. More work is needed to determine whether youths are experiencing clinically important lapses in care or other negative health effects due to the delayed timing of transfer.