Odierna Donna H, Bero Lisa A
University of California, San Francisco, USA.
Sage Open. 2014;4(4):1-11. doi: 10.1177/2158244014554391.
Loss to follow-up can introduce bias into research, making it difficult to develop inclusive evidence-based health policies and practice guidelines. We aimed to deepen understanding of reasons why participants leave or remain in longitudinal health studies. We interviewed 59 researchers and current and former research participants in six focus groups ( = 55) or interviews ( = 4) at three study centers in a large academic research institution. We used minimally structured interview guides and inductive thematic analysis to explore participant-level, study-level, and contextual participation barriers and facilitators. Four main themes emerged: transportation, incentives and motivation, caregiver concerns, and the social and physical environment. Themes shared crosscutting issues involving funding, flexibility, and relationships between researchers and research participants. Study-level and contextual factors appear to interact with participant characteristics, particularly socioeconomic status and disease severity to affect participant retention. Participants' characteristics do not seem to be the main cause of study dropout. Researchers and funders might be able to address contextual and study factors in ways that reduce barriers to participation.
失访会给研究带来偏差，使得制定全面的循证卫生政策和实践指南变得困难。我们旨在加深对参与者离开或留在纵向健康研究的原因的理解。我们在一家大型学术研究机构的三个研究中心，对59名研究人员以及当前和以前的研究参与者进行了访谈，其中55人参加了六个焦点小组访谈，4人接受了单独访谈。我们使用结构松散的访谈指南和归纳主题分析法，来探究参与者层面、研究层面以及背景层面的参与障碍和促进因素。出现了四个主要主题：交通、激励与动机、照顾者担忧，以及社会和物理环境。这些主题有一些共同的交叉问题，涉及资金、灵活性以及研究人员与研究参与者之间的关系。研究层面和背景因素似乎与参与者特征相互作用，尤其是社会经济地位和疾病严重程度，从而影响参与者的留存率。参与者的特征似乎不是研究退出的主要原因。研究人员和资助者或许能够通过减少参与障碍的方式来解决背景和研究因素问题。
