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      A systematic review of the effect of retention methods in population-based cohort studies

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      BMC Public Health
      BioMed Central

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          Abstract

          Background

          Longitudinal studies are of aetiological and public health relevance but can be undermined by attrition. The aim of this paper was to identify effective retention strategies to increase participation in population-based cohort studies.

          Methods

          Systematic review of the literature to identify prospective population-based cohort studies with health outcomes in which retention strategies had been evaluated.

          Results

          Twenty-eight studies published up to January 2011 were included. Eleven of which were randomized controlled trials of retention strategies (RCT). Fifty-seven percent of the studies were postal, 21% in-person, 14% telephone and 7% had mixed data collection methods. A total of 45 different retention strategies were used, categorised as 1) incentives, 2) reminder methods, repeat visits or repeat questionnaires, alternative modes of data collection or 3) other methods. Incentives were associated with an increase in retention rates, which improved with greater incentive value. Whether cash was the most effective incentive was not clear from studies that compared cash and gifts of similar value. The average increase in retention rate was 12% for reminder letters, 5% for reminder calls and 12% for repeat questionnaires. Ten studies used alternative data collection methods, mainly as a last resort. All postal studies offered telephone interviews to non-responders, which increased retention rates by 3%. Studies that used face-to-face interviews increased their retention rates by 24% by offering alternative locations and modes of data collection.

          Conclusions

          Incentives boosted retention rates in prospective cohort studies. Other methods appeared to have a beneficial effect but there was a general lack of a systematic approach to their evaluation.

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          Most cited references57

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          Barriers to participation in randomised controlled trials: a systematic review.

          A systematic review of three bibliographic databases from 1986 to 1996 identified 78 papers reporting barriers to recruitment of clinicians and patients to randomised controlled trials. Clinician barriers included: time constraints, lack of staff and training, worry about the impact on the doctor-patient relationship, concern for patients, loss of professional autonomy, difficulty with the consent procedure, lack of rewards and recognition, and an insufficiently interesting question. Patient barriers included: additional demands of the trial, patient preferences, worry caused by uncertainty, and concerns about information and consent. To overcome barriers to clinician recruitment, the trial should address an important research question and the protocol and data collection should be as straightforward as possible. The demands on clinicians and patients should be kept to a minimum. Dedicated research staff may be required to support clinical staff and patients. The recruitment aspects of a randomised controlled trial should be carefully planned and piloted. Further work is needed to quantify the extent of problems associated with clinician and patient participation, and proper evaluation is required of strategies to overcome barriers.
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            Hand Grip Strength: age and gender stratified normative data in a population-based study

            Background The North West Adelaide Health Study is a representative longitudinal cohort study of people originally aged 18 years and over. The aim of this study was to describe normative data for hand grip strength in a community-based Australian population. Secondary aims were to investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and hand grip strength, and to compare Australian data with international hand grip strength norms. Methods The sample was randomly selected and recruited by telephone interview. Overall, 3 206 (81% of those recruited) participants returned to the clinic during the second stage (2004-2006) which specifically focused on the collection of information relating to musculoskeletal conditions. Results Following the exclusion of 435 participants who had hand pain and/or arthritis, 1366 men and 1312 women participants provided hand grip strength measurement. The study population was relatively young, with 41.5% under 40 years; and their mean BMI was 28.1 kg/m2 (SD 5.5). Higher hand grip strength was weakly related to higher BMI in adults under the age of 30 and over the age of 70, but inversely related to higher BMI between these ages. Australian norms from this sample had amongst the lowest of the hand grip strength of the internationally published norms, except those from underweight populations. Conclusions This population demonstrated higher BMI and lower grip strength in younger participants than much of the international published, population data. A complete exploration of the relationship between BMI and hand grip strength was not fully explored as there were very few participants with BMI in the underweight range. The age and gender grip strength values are lower in younger adults than those reported in international literature.
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              Estimating the Effect of Incentives on Mail Survey Response Rates: A Meta-Analysis

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                BMC Public Health
                BMC Public Health
                BioMed Central
                1471-2458
                2011
                19 April 2011
                : 11
                : 249
                Affiliations
                [1 ]MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, UK
                [2 ]University of Essex, Institute for Social & Economic Research, Colchester, UK
                Article
                1471-2458-11-249
                10.1186/1471-2458-11-249
                3103452
                21504610
                7b2170f9-0fdd-445a-9a8a-1f0efef5f11f
                Copyright ©2011 Booker et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 28 September 2010
                : 19 April 2011
                Categories
                Research Article

                Public health
                Public health

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