Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK ; Sangath, Goa.
Sangath, Goa.
Indian J Psychiatry. 2013 Oct;55(4):376-9. doi: 10.4103/0019-5545.120573.
Research on the natural history and long-term outcomes of alcohol use disorders (AUD) is important to guide health policy. However, attrition is a major challenge in longitudinal studies and can affect validity of findings.
A 4-year follow-up study was conducted on a randomly selected subgroup of a sample of men in rural and urban communities in Goa to assess attrition, preliminary estimates of AUD outcomes, and chronic disease risk factors.
Overall attrition rate was 16.7% with a higher attrition in AUD compared to abstainers or casual drinkers. Incidence of AUD at 4 years was 12.8% while the persistence rate of AUD was 53.9%. A trend for poorer health and health behaviors and higher blood pressure was observed in AUD.
The results of this study suggest a relatively low attrition rate despite the long follow-up period and support the feasibility of conducting a definitive cohort study with the entire sample.
研究酒精使用障碍(AUD)的自然史和长期结局对于指导卫生政策非常重要。然而,随访研究中的失访是一个主要挑战,可能会影响研究结果的有效性。
对果阿农村和城市社区的男性样本中随机选择的亚组进行了为期 4 年的随访研究,以评估失访情况、AUD 结局的初步估计值和慢性疾病风险因素。
总的失访率为 16.7%,AUD 组的失访率高于戒酒者或偶尔饮酒者。4 年后 AUD 的发病率为 12.8%,而 AUD 的持续率为 53.9%。AUD 患者的健康和健康行为较差,血压较高。
尽管随访时间较长,但本研究的结果表明失访率相对较低,支持对整个样本进行确定性队列研究的可行性。