Contacting participants for follow-up: how much effort is required to retain participants in longitudinal studies?
Contacting participants for follow-up: how much effort is required to retain participants in longitudinal studies?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2004.10.002
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发表时间：
2005-02-01
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
Loeber, R
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cotter, RB;Burke, JD;Loeber, R
参与者的保留是纵向研究项目成功的关键。寻找参与者进行随访通常既耗时又昂贵，这可能导致研究人员由于预算原因限制了他们的联系努力。然而，如果建立这样一个协议，可能会失去相当数量的参与者。本文在纵向研究中考察了有限坚持对参与者保留和选择性流失的影响。这些数据是从发展趋势研究（DTS）中收集的，这是一项关于破坏性行为障碍发展的纵向研究，包括177名从童年到成年早期被临床转诊的男孩。结果表明，限制接触努力将导致显著的参与者损失和选择性损耗参与者破坏性行为障碍。成本估算表明，与研究成本的初始投资相比，留住“困难”参与者所需的额外努力是最小的。实施系统和全面的留用办法将产生有利的留用率，而且可以以具有成本效益的方式完成。(C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd.版权所有。
Participant retention is essential to the success of longitudinal research projects. Locating participants for follow-up is often time consuming and expensive, which may result in researchers limiting their contact efforts for budgetary reasons. Yet if such a protocol is instituted a fair number of participants will likely be lost. This paper examines the impact of restricted persistence on participant retention and selective attrition in longitudinal research. The data was collected from the developmental trends study (DTS), a longitudinal study, of the development of disruptive behavior disorders, consisting of 177 clinic-referred boys who were followed from childhood through young adulthood. The results indicated that limiting contact efforts would have resulted in significant participant loss and selective attrition for participants with disruptive behavior disorders. Cost-estimates showed that the extra effort required to retain 'difficult' participants was minimal compared to the initial investment in study costs. Implementing systematic and comprehensive approaches to retention will result in favorable retention rates and can be done in a cost-effective manner. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.