Attrition in longitudinal studies: advancing and evaluating statistical methods

纵向研究是监测澳大利亚人健康和福祉的重要工具。它们在研究疾病随时间的变化和前瞻性地收集关于接触和疾病发作的数据方面具有独特的地位。澳大利亚有许多成功的纵向研究，导致循证健康方面的重大突破（例如，纳米比亚皮肤癌预防试验）。不幸的是，所有的纵向研究都遭受了参与者的流失，这导致了关于其有效性和普遍性的问题。本研究将探讨流失的原因，以及流失对纵向研究的影响，以改善纵向研究的设计和分析。

Longitudinal studies are a vital tool for monitoring the health and well-being of Australians. They are uniquely placed to examine changes in diseases over time and prospectively collect data on exposure and disease onset. There have been many successful longitudinal studies in Australia that have lead to significant breakthroughs in evidence-based health (e.g. the Nambour Skin Cancer Prevention Trial). Unfortunately all longitudinal studies suffer from attrition, or loss of participants, which leads to questions concerning their validity and generalisability. This project will investigate the causes of attrition, and the effect attrition has on longitudinal studies, in order to improve their design and analysis.