Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) are a heterogeneous group of rare diffuse diseases affecting the lung parenchyma in children and adults. Childhood interstitial lung diseases (chILD) are often diagnosed at very young age, affect the developing lung, and can have different presentations and prognosis compared to adult forms of these diseases. In addition, chILD in many cases may apparently remit, and have a better response to therapy and better prognosis than adult ILD. Many affected children will reach adulthood with minimal activity or clinical remission of the disease. They need continuing care and follow-up from childhood to adulthood if the disease persists and progresses over time, but also if they are asymptomatic and in full remission. Therefore, for every chILD patient an active transition process from paediatric to adult care should be guaranteed. This European Respiratory Society (ERS) statement provides a review of the literature and current practice concerning transition of care in chILD. It draws on work in existing transition care programmes in other chronic respiratory diseases, disease-overarching transition-of-care programmes, evidence on the impact of these programmes on clinical outcomes, current evidence regarding long-term remission of chILD as well as the lack of harmonisation between the current adult ILD and chILD classifications impacting on transition of care. While the transition system is well established in several chronic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis or diabetes mellitus, we could not find sufficient published evidence on transition systems in chILD. This statement summarises current knowledge, but cannot yet provide evidence-based recommendations for clinical practice.

2nd Pulmonary Medicine Department General University Hospital Attikon Medical School National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Athens Greece

Centre des Maladies Respiratoires Rares CRCM Créteil France

Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Créteil Service de Pédiatrie Générale Créteil France

ChILD Lung Foundation UK

CIBERER Centro de Investigación en Red de Enfermedades Raras Instituto de Salud Carlos 3 Madrid Spain

Department of Educational Sciences Faculty of Arts Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Pediatric Pneumology Dr von Hauner Children's Hospital Ludwig Maximilians University German Center for Lung Research Munich Germany

Department of Pediatrics and CF Center Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center Jerusalem Israel

Department of Pediatrics Pediatric Pulmonology Allergology and Neonatology Hannover Medical School Hannover Germany

Fédérations Hospitalo Universitaires Créteil France

Institute of Population Health The University of Liverpool Liverpool UK

Interstitial Lung Disease Unit Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals London UK

Marmara University School of Medicine Division of Pediatric Pulmonology Istanbul Turkey

National Heart and Lung Institute Imperial College Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust London UK

Paediatric Pulmonology Paediatric Department 2nd Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Motol Prague Czech Republic

Pediatric Allergy and Pulmonology Section Department of Pediatrics Vall d'Hebron Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Barcelona Spain

Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy Emma Children's Hospital Amsterdam UMC University of Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands

Pediatric Pulmonology Department and Reference Centre for Rare Lung Diseases RespiRare INSERM UMR_S933 Laboratory of Childhood Genetic Diseases Armand Trousseau Hospital Sorbonne University and APHP Paris France

Pulmonary Medicine Amsterdam UMC University of Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands

The Margaret Turner Warwick Centre for Fibrosing Lung Diseases Imperial College London National Heart and Lung Institute London UK

University Campus Library Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

University Paris Est Créteil INSERM IMRB Créteil France

References provided by Crossref.org

An update on diagnosis and treatments of childhood interstitial lung diseases