The main goal of this project is to collaborate with community stakeholders to modify, and pilot test the Developmental Adherence Program (DAP) to assess its feasibility, acceptability, and impact on adherence among adolescent kidney transplant patients. The program is designed to address key tasks of psychosocial development to provide adolescent patients with the knowledge and skills needed to cope with their conditions.
Dena Werner, PhD, LCSW (Department of Family Medicine)
Heather Gardiner, PhD, MPH (Sponsor, Department of Family Medicine)
Clinical Science Research Fellowship Award from the American Society of Transplantation (AST) - [07/01/2025 - 06/30/2027]
Adolescents (ages 11-17) are a high-risk group of kidney transplant patients because of their struggles to adhere to treatment therapies and recommendations. Despite the strong evidence of a correlation between poor psychological functioning and non-adherent behaviors, few interventions exist to target psychiatric comorbidities interfering with adherence to improve treatment outcomes among the adolescent population. To address this critical gap in care, we seek to modify and pilot test an existing psychoeducational intervention to assess its feasibility and acceptability among adolescent kidney transplant patients. The findings will be used in preparation for a larger multi-site clinical trial that will test the efficacy and effectiveness of the intervention to improve long-term outcomes for adolescent patients with kidney disease and other chronic medical conditions.
Active
Dena Werner, Sandra Amaral, Charles Varnell, Heather Gardiner, Improving nonadherence in adolescents with kidney disease: a scoping review of interventions, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 2026;, jsag031, https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsag031