Best practice & research. Clinical rheumatology
July 1, 2026 · via Europe PMC
The young adult with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA): A clinical review of transition, complications, and psychosocial management.
Rozenblyum EV, Gakhal NK.
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
This review highlights that up to half of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) continue to have active disease or complications into adulthood, and outlines best practices for adult rheumatologists managing transition, chronic complications (such as TMJ arthritis and uveitis), and psychosocial needs in this population.
What was studied
A narrative clinical review summarizing long-term outcomes of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) relevant to adult rheumatologists, and outlining evidence-based practices for screening and management across domains including uveitis, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) arthritis, mental health, and educational/vocational participation during transition to adult care.
Key findings
- Up to half of JIA patients continue to experience active disease or complications into adulthood.
- Adult providers must address challenges unique to childhood-onset disease, including persistent inflammation, TMJ involvement, long-term medication exposure, chronic pain, psychosocial morbidity, and extra-articular manifestations such as uveitis.
- Transition gaps are described as common and contribute to medication discontinuation, loss to follow-up, and disease flare.
- The review provides practical strategies for building transition-informed adult rheumatology practices, though no new quantitative outcome data are presented, consistent with this being a review article.
Clinical relevance
The findings suggest that adult rheumatologists should be aware of JIA-specific long-term complications and transition-related risks (e.g., medication discontinuation, flare) and may benefit from structured transition protocols to improve continuity of care, which is directly relevant to clinical practice for adult providers seeing former pediatric rheumatology patients.
Who should care
Limitations
This is a narrative review rather than original research; it does not report new quantitative outcome data or a systematic evidence synthesis with statistics.
Many JIA patients carry disease activity and complications into adulthood, and structured transition care is needed to prevent medication discontinuation, loss to follow-up, and flares.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic rheumatic disease of childhood, and up to half of patients continue to experience active disease or complications into adulthood. Despite this, adult rheumatology care remains largely oriented toward adult-onset disease, creating a mismatch in expertise for patients with childhood-onset arthritis. As a result, adult providers must address clinical challenges unique to childhood-onset disease, including persistent inflammation, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) involvement, long-term medication exposure, chronic pain, psychosocial morbidity, and extra-articular manifestations such as uveitis. Transition gaps are common and contribute to medication discontinuation, loss to follow-up, and disease flare. This review summarizes the long-term outcomes of JIA relevant to adult rheumatologists and outlines best practices in screening and management across key domains, including uveitis, TMJ arthritis, mental health, and educational and vocational participation. The review also highlights evidence-based practical strategies for building transition-informed adult rheumatology practices.
DOI
10.1016/j.berh.2026.102158
PMID
42379955
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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