Hunt J R, White E
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98104, USA.
Epidemiol Rev. 1998;20(1):57-70. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a017972.
The only way to ensure that losses to follow-up have not biased study results is to keep all losses to an absolute minimum. Since more complete follow-up leads to the identification of additional disease events, the effort spent in locating cohort members also improves the precision as well as the validity of the study results. This presentation reviewed approaches for maximizing retention and minimizing loss to follow-up, including the importance of communicating the expectations of participation and collecting personal information at baseline, conducting frequent personal and mail contact, and providing incentives for participation. Response rates can be increased by repeated attempts to contact each cohort member using a range of approaches (e.g., telephone, mail, personal contacts) and by other procedures specific to mailed questionnaires, telephone interviews, or in-person visits. Lost participants can be traced by use of the NCOA system and contact with other local, state, and national sources. Finally, for those participants who are unable or unwilling to continue or who cannot be found, proxy interviews and/or use of the National Death Index may provide information on the outcomes of interest and vital status. Additional research evaluating the efficacy of the various approaches to retention and tracking is needed to help investigators learn how to best apply study resources to retain and keep track of the largest possible number of cohort members.
确保随访失访不影响研究结果的唯一方法是将所有失访率降至绝对最低。由于更完整的随访会发现更多疾病事件，花费精力寻找队列成员也能提高研究结果的精确度和有效性。本报告回顾了最大化保留率和最小化随访失访的方法，包括在基线时沟通参与期望和收集个人信息、进行频繁的个人和邮件联系以及提供参与激励措施的重要性。通过使用一系列方法（如电话、邮件、个人联系）反复尝试联系每个队列成员，以及采用针对邮寄问卷、电话访谈或面对面访问的其他特定程序，可以提高应答率。可以使用国家变更地址（NCOA）系统并与其他地方、州和国家来源进行联系来追踪失访参与者。最后，对于那些无法或不愿意继续参与或无法找到的参与者，代理访谈和/或使用国家死亡索引可能会提供有关感兴趣结局和生命状态的信息。需要进行更多研究来评估各种保留和追踪方法的效果，以帮助研究人员了解如何最好地利用研究资源来保留和追踪尽可能多的队列成员。
