Marmor J K, Oliveria S A, Donahue R P, Garrahie E J, White M J, Moore L L, Ellison R C
Evans Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, MA 02118.
J Clin Epidemiol. 1991;44(6):531-5. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(91)90216-v.
Maintenance of the cohort is one of the primary challenges of a longitudinal study. At the end of 3 years of follow up in the Framingham Children's Study, a longitudinal study of young children and their parents, 100 of the original 106 families (94.3%) have remained in the study. A questionnaire was administered to identify factors contributing to the high rate of follow up to this point in the study. The attitudes of the staff, feedback to the subjects, the staff's handling of questions and problems, and association with the Framingham Heart Study emerged as the most important factors influencing continued participation in the study. In addition, 99% of the subjects stated that they believed the medical research to be important. We conclude that the quality of the communication with study participants and the subjects' perceived importance of the research have been the key factors in maintaining the cohort in this longitudinal epidemiologic study.
维持队列是纵向研究的主要挑战之一。在弗雷明汉儿童研究（一项针对幼儿及其父母的纵向研究）随访3年结束时，最初的106个家庭中有100个（94.3%）仍在参与研究。通过发放问卷来确定促成该研究至此高随访率的因素。工作人员的态度、对受试者的反馈、工作人员对问题的处理以及与弗雷明汉心脏研究的关联成为影响继续参与研究的最重要因素。此外，99%的受试者表示他们认为医学研究很重要。我们得出结论，与研究参与者沟通的质量以及受试者所感知到的研究重要性是在这项纵向流行病学研究中维持队列的关键因素。
