Department of Clinical Medicine

Background: Transfer of the growing number of adolescents and young adults with severe chronic health conditions from paediatric to adult care is a multidisciplinary effort where nurses and physicians play an important
role. Despite the increased focus on guidelines and improvement models, the experiences of health care professionals in handling adolescents’ and young adults’ transfer appears to be challenging both in pediatric and adult care.
In the present study of professionals’ experiences of the transfer, the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) meta-aggregative approach was used. The developmental history of JBI is grounded the need of evidence to inform health care
decision-making. They suggest that aggregation of findings is more than a combined whole in a way that is analogous with meta-analysis (quantitative findings).
Objective: To present and discuss a meta- aggregative approach to synthesize qualitative findings.
Methods: JBI SUMARI (System for the Unified Management of the Assessment and Review of Information) was used to assist the conduct of the review. To establish confidence of synthesised qualitative findings, the ConQual system ranking the dependability and credibility of the included studies will be presented. The dependability score is based on five specific questions from the JBI critical appraisal tool. The credibility score is based on the number of findings included in the categories associated with the synthesized finding, and defined as Unequivocal, Credible or Not Supported.
Results: The aim of a JBI meta-aggregation is the translation of research evidence into practice. We will reflect on the strengths and limitations of using the ConQual approach in JBI’s meta aggregation approach.
Conclusion: A meta-aggregative approach provides one qualitative approach to qualitative findings, however how does it capture the quality of qualitative findings transferable to clinical practice?