Bridging pediatric to adult care: a scoping review on transitional care for individuals with congenital heart disease using data mining techniques to identify key topics

Background: Adolescents and young adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) face significant challenges when transitioning from pediatric to adult care. Despite growing recognition of its importance, transitional care remains inconsistently implemented across healthcare systems, and a summary of published literature in this regard is still missing. This scoping review aims to systematically map the literature on CHD transitional care and identify key topics and trends. Methods: Following Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, we conducted a comprehensive search across seven electronic databases using the Population, Concept, and Context framework. A total of 73 studies were included. Data were extracted and analyzed using Latent Dirichlet Allocation to identify core topics, and Multiple Correspondence Analysis was applied to explore thematic relationships and validate topic structure. Lexicometric analysis assessed the linguistic complexity and specificity of the literature. Results: Three major themes emerged: (1) Education, Self-Management, and Structured Support, (2) Timing, Knowledge Transfer, and Developmental Needs, and (3) Transition Program Implementation and Coordination. These themes reflect an increasing focus on structured educational strategies, developmentally tailored care, and system-level program delivery. Education-focused interventions were more frequently found in recent, high-quality experimental studies. In contrast, studies addressing timing and developmental needs and those focused on implementation were more common in earlier-phase or heterogeneous research contexts. Conclusion: Transitional care for individuals with CHD requires more standardized, evidence-based approaches. Improved documentation when reporting transitional care is essential to enhance fidelity, scalability, and long-term impact. This review provides a foundation for developing outcome-focused research and supports designing individualized, high-quality transition programs.