Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; Outcomes After Critical Illness and Surgery (OACIS), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Chest. 2020 Aug;158(2):588-595. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2020.02.050. Epub 2020 Mar 17.
Participant retention is a major challenge in clinical research, especially in studies with multiple, longitudinal research assessments. Despite the importance of retention methods, there is little empirical research on how cohort retention efforts are perceived by study participants.
To evaluate the association between the number of attempts undertaken to contact participants for research assessments in a longitudinal cohort study and participants' feeling of being bothered regarding such contact attempts.
Secondary analysis of 315 ARDS survivors participating in a prospective study using comprehensive strategies for participant follow-up at 6 and 12 months that achieved > 95% participant retention. After completing a 242-question research assessment lasting 20 to 40 min, participants were surveyed for feedback.
At 6 and 12 months, only 5% and 8% of participants, respectively, reported being bothered "more than a little bit" by the study contact attempts, with an OR of 1.06 (95% CI, 1.02-1.10) for each contact attempt. Participants' mental health symptoms at follow-up assessment were not associated with reports of being bothered.
Comprehensive cohort retention efforts can achieve > 95% retention rates in a national longitudinal study, with most participants reporting little or no bother by contact attempts. Despite a high frequency of mental health symptoms in this population, such symptoms were not associated with participant feedback regarding contact attempts. Careful training of research staff may be important in achieving such results.
参与者保留是临床研究中的一个主要挑战，特别是在具有多次纵向研究评估的研究中。尽管保留方法很重要，但关于研究参与者如何看待队列保留工作的实证研究很少。
评估在一项纵向队列研究中为研究评估联系参与者所进行的联系尝试次数与参与者对这种联系尝试感到困扰之间的关联。
对 315 名参与前瞻性研究的 ARDS 幸存者进行二次分析，该研究采用了全面的参与者随访策略，在 6 个月和 12 个月时的参与者保留率超过 95%。在完成了 20 到 40 分钟的 242 个问题的研究评估后，对参与者进行了调查以获取反馈。
在 6 个月和 12 个月时，分别只有 5%和 8%的参与者报告说“非常困扰”，而每次联系尝试的 OR 为 1.06（95%CI，1.02-1.10）。在随访评估中，参与者的心理健康症状与报告的困扰无关。
全面的队列保留工作可以在一项全国性的纵向研究中实现超过 95%的保留率，大多数参与者表示很少或根本不介意联系尝试。尽管该人群中存在较高频率的心理健康症状，但这些症状与参与者对联系尝试的反馈无关。对研究人员进行仔细的培训可能对取得这样的结果很重要。
