Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
FHI 360, Durham, NC, USA.
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2021 Nov 8;21(1):242. doi: 10.1186/s12874-021-01415-6.
Identifying successful strategies to improve participant retention in longitudinal studies remains a challenge. In this study we evaluated whether non-traditional fieldworker shifts (after hours during the week and weekends) enhanced participant retention when compared to retention during traditional weekday shifts in the HPTN 071 (PopART) population cohort (PC).
HPTN 071 (PopART) PC participants were recruited and followed up in their homes on an annual basis by research fieldworkers over a 3-4 year period. The average number of successful follow-up visits, where a PC participant was found and retained in the study, was calculated for each of 3 visit schedules (early weekday shift, late weekday shift, and Saturday shift), and standardized to account for variation in fieldwork shift duration. We used one-way univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) to describe differences in mean-successful visits and 95% confidence intervals between the shift types.
Data on 16 651 successful visits were included. Successful visit rates were higher when conducting Saturday visits (14.0; 95% CI: 11.3-16.6) compared to both regular (4.5; 95% CI: 3.7-5.3) and late weekday shifts (5.3; 95% CI: 4.7-5.8) overall and in all subgroup analyses (P<0.001). The successful visit rate was higher amongst women than men were during all shift types (3.2 vs. 1.3, p<0.001). Successful visit rates by shift type did not differ significantly by age, over time, by PC round or by community triplet.
The number of people living with HIV continues to increase annually. High quality evidence from longitudinal studies remains critical for evaluating HIV prevention and treatment strategies. This study showed a significant benefit on participant retention through introduction of Saturday shifts for home visits and these data can make an important contribution to the emerging body of evidence for improving retention in longitudinal research.
PopART was approved by the Stellenbosch University Health Research Ethics Committees (N12/11/074), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (6326) ethics committee and the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) (Protocol ID 11865). PopART was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (registration number NCT01900977 ).
确定提高纵向研究参与者保留率的成功策略仍然是一个挑战。在这项研究中，我们评估了与传统工作日轮班相比，非传统外勤人员轮班（工作日晚上和周末）是否能提高 HPTN 071（PopART）人群队列（PC）参与者的保留率。
HPTN 071（PopART）PC 参与者通过研究外勤人员在其家中进行招募并每年随访一次，随访时间为 3-4 年。计算了三种访视时间表（早期工作日轮班、晚期工作日轮班和周六轮班）中每个时间表的成功随访次数（成功随访是指找到并保留在研究中的 PC 参与者），并通过标准化来解释外勤人员轮班持续时间的差异。我们使用单向单变量方差分析（ANOVA）来描述不同班次类型之间的平均成功访问次数和 95%置信区间的差异。
共纳入了 16651 次成功访视的数据。与常规（4.5；95%CI：3.7-5.3）和晚期工作日班次（5.3；95%CI：4.7-5.8）相比，周六访视（14.0；95%CI：11.3-16.6）的成功访视率更高，而且在所有亚组分析中也是如此（P<0.001）。在所有班次类型中，女性的成功访视率均高于男性（3.2 比 1.3，P<0.001）。随着时间的推移，不同班次类型之间的成功访视率没有显著差异，与 PC 轮次或社区三胞胎无关。
每年感染艾滋病毒的人数继续增加。来自纵向研究的高质量证据对于评估艾滋病毒预防和治疗策略仍然至关重要。本研究通过引入周六家访，显著提高了参与者的保留率，这些数据可以为提高纵向研究的保留率提供重要的证据支持。
PopART 得到了斯泰伦博斯大学健康研究伦理委员会（N12/11/074）、伦敦卫生与热带医学院（6326）伦理委员会和艾滋病司（DAIDS）的批准（协议 ID 11865）。PopART 在 ClinicalTrials.gov 上注册（注册号 NCT01900977）。
