Abstract:

Background: Sickle cell disease is one of the most common life-threatening inherited conditions worldwide and has been designated a public health priority by WHO. Transitioning to adult clinic is crucial for better patient follow-up and management of the disease, regardless of the process transition is faced with some challenges and barriers so this study aims at assessing the challenges and factors associated with clinic attendance among these sickle cell disease patients.

Methodology: This was a cross sectional study involving 302 sickle cell disease patients at Bugando Medical Centre using a well-structured questionnaire and data collected was entered into Microsoft excel for cleaning before being analysed using SPSS version 20. Results will be presented inform of figures and tables and association between variables was considered significant if a p value of < 0.05.

Results: Majority of participants ranged in 5-17 years accounting for 187 (61.92%) where 208 (68.87%) were students in primary education. Among the studied participants, 92 (30.46%) transited from paediatric to adult population. Challenges described were leaving the current provider, navigating new healthcare system, less familiarity.

Conclusion: Among the studied sickle cell disease patients in this study, only few about 30% of these patients transited from paediatric to adult clinic and among the challenges described were leaving the current provider and establishment trust with new provider, Distrust of adult provider, navigating new healthcare system, less familiarity of the severity and pattern of SCD and not having enough information about transition. Furthermore, factors associated with less attendance at clinics were lack of transport, lack of favourable transitioning programmes and competitive activities hindering attendance in clinic.