Achieving a 96.6 percent follow-up rate in a longitudinal study of drug abusers
Achieving a 96.6 percent follow-up rate in a longitudinal study of drug abusers
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DOI：
10.1016/0376-8716(96)01254-9
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发表时间：
1996-07-01
影响因子：
4.2
通讯作者：
Claverie, D
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cottler, LB;Compton, WM;Claverie, D
纵向研究可能会因随访率较低而受到阻碍，严重降低了研究结果的概括性。了解这些障碍以及克服和适应这些障碍的方法，导致NIDA资助的一个旨在减少圣路易斯最脆弱的吸毒人群中艾滋病毒传播的示范项目登记的479名吸毒者18个月的随访率为96.6%。在这篇文章中，我们通过分析达到研究对象所需的努力，讨论了电话和系统跟踪、创造性的团队合作和坚持不懈的重要性以及跟踪未接受治疗的吸毒者的程序。我们还比较了难以接触到的受访者和不那么难接触到的受访者的特征。结果显示，就业状况是与难以接触有关的唯一特征。在此样本中，性别、种族、年龄、教育程度和精神状态不区分招募难度。研究结果表明，虽然失业预示着招聘困难，而且受访者提供的定位器信息可能非常有帮助，但全面的跟踪战略以及坚持不懈和创造性的团队合作是后续调查成功率的最重要决定因素。
Longitudinal studies can be hampered by poor follow-up rates, seriously reducing generalizability of the findings. Understanding the barriers, as well as approaches to overcome and adapt to these impediments, resulted in a 96.6% 18 month follow-up rate of 479 drug abusers enrolled in an NIDA funded demonstration project aimed at reducing HIV transmission among St. Louis' most vulnerable drug-using population. In this paper, we discuss the importance of phone and systems tracking, creative team work and persistence and procedures for tracking out-of-treatment drug-users by analyzing the efforts needed to reach the study subjects. We also compared the characteristics of hard-to-reach respondents with those who were less difficult. The results revealed that employment status was the only characteristic associated with being hard-to-reach. Gender, race, age, education and psychiatric status did not discriminate recruitment difficulty in this sample. The study findings suggest that although unemployment predicted recruitment difficulty, and that the locator information provided by the respondent can be very helpful, a comprehensive tracking strategy as well as persistence and creative team work are the most important determinants of the rate of success of a follow-up investigation.