Participants Attrition in a Longitudinal Study: The Malaysian Cohort Study Experience

The attrition rate of longitudinal study participation remains a challenge. To date, the Malaysian Cohort (TMC) study follow-up rate was only 42.7%. This study objective is to identify the cause of attrition among TMC participants and the measures to curb it. A total of 19,343 TMC participants from...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2021-07, Vol.18 (14), p.7216
Main Authors: Abdullah, Noraidatulakma, Kamaruddin, Mohd Arman, Goh, Ying-Xian, Othman, Raihannah, Dauni, Andri, Jalal, Nazihah Abd, Yusuf, Nurul Ain Mhd, Kamat, Salywana A., Basri, Nor Hazlinawati, Jamal, Rahman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blood pressure
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Cohort analysis
Data collection
Diabetes
Health care facilities
Hypertension
Longitudinal studies
Medical treatment
Mortality
Questionnaires
Recruitment
Surveillance
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Summary:The attrition rate of longitudinal study participation remains a challenge. To date, the Malaysian Cohort (TMC) study follow-up rate was only 42.7%. This study objective is to identify the cause of attrition among TMC participants and the measures to curb it. A total of 19,343 TMC participants from Kuala Lumpur and Selangor that was due for follow-up were studied. The two most common attrition reasons are undergoing medical treatment at another government or private health center (7.0%) and loss of interest in participating in the TMC project (5.1%). Those who were inclined to drop out were mostly Chinese, aged 50 years and above, unemployed, and had comorbidities during the baseline recruitment. We have also contacted 2183 participants for the home recruitment follow-up, and about 10.9% agreed to join. Home recruitment slightly improved the overall follow-up rate from 42.7% to 43.5% during the three-month study period.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph18147216