Retaining and tracking cohort study members
Retaining and tracking cohort study members
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DOI：
10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a017972
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发表时间：
1998-01-01
影响因子：
5.5
通讯作者：
White, E
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hunt, JR;White, E
Retaining and tracking cohort participants is crucial for" longitudinal" cohort studies, ie, those that require periodic contact with participants after cohort entry to update exposures and/or ascertain outcome events. A major effort in such studies will be devoted to follow-up, one of the greatest challenges to the success of a longitudinal cohort study. While even well-designed studies will have some loss to followup, there are several strategies and activities that can be undertaken to keep the loss to a minimum. Loss to follow-up may occur because the participant has decided that he/she no longer wishes to participate (drop outs) or because the study investigator has lost track of the participant. Maintaining contact with cohort study participants is crucial, as there is some evidence to suggest that lost participants may differ more from participants who respond than participants who can be found but refuse to respond (1). Thus, locating lost participants may be as, or more, important in minimizing bias as obtaining a high response rate in those who are easily found. Of particular concern is that those who cannot be found may be lost to follow-up because they have developed the disease outcome of the study or have died. These types of losses lead to reduced study power and may lead to bias in the odds ratio (2, 3). Therefore, every effort should be made to encourage participation of, and contact with, all cohort members until the end of the study. Methods to maximize retention and keep track of cohort members, use of proxies to collect follow-up data, and procedures for locating hard-to-find or" lost" participants are discussed in this presentation. Although our focus is on participants in longitudinal cohort studies, the section on Tracing hard to find or lost participants, below, may also apply to tracking participants in retrospective cohort studies.
