Minimizing participant attrition in panel studies through the use of effective retention and tracking strategies: Review and recommendations

Evaluation and Program Planning

Volumn 19, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 1-25

  Ribisl, Kurt M ^a   Walton, Maureen A ^b   Mowbray, Carol T ^b   Luke, Douglas A ^b   Davidson II, William S ^b   Bootsmiller, Bonnie J ^b  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0001966786     PISSN: 01497189     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/0149-7189(95)00037-2     Document Type: Article

References (118)

1. Aday, L. A. (1989). Preparing the data for analysis. In Designing and conducting health surveys: A comprehensive guide (pp. 217-230). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
2. Agrawal, K. C., Kellam, S. G., Klein, Z. E., & Turner, J. (1978). The Woodlawn mental health studies: tracking children and families for long-term follow-up. American Journal of Public Health, 68, 139-142.
3. Allison, K. R., & Yoshida, K. K. (1989). Increasing response rates in community health surveys administered by telephone. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 80, 67-70.
4. Armstrong, J. S., & Lusk, E. J. (1987). Return postage in mail surveys: a meta-analysis. Public Opinion Quarterly, 51, 233-248.
5. Aylward, G. P., Hatcher, R. P., Stripp, B., Gustafson, N. F. & Leavitt, L. A. (1985). Who goes and who stays: subject loss in a multicenter, longitudinal follow-up study. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 6(1), 3-8.
6. Bailar, J. C., III, & Mosteller, F. (1988). Guidelines for statistical reporting in articles for medical journals. Annals of Internal Medicine, 108, 266-273.
7. Bale, R. N. (1979). The validity and reliability of self-reported data from heroin addicts: mailed questionnaires compared with face-to-face interviews. The International Journal of the Addictions, 14, 993-1000.
8. Bale, R. N., Arnoldussen, B. H., & Quittner, A. M. (1984). Follow-up difficulty with substance abusers: predictions of time to locate and relationship to outcome. The International Journal of the Addictions, 19, 885-902.
9. Bale, R. N., Cabrera, S., & Brown, J. (1977). Follow-up evaluation of drug abuse treatment. American Journal of Alcohol Abuse, 4, 233-249.
10. Belcher, J., & Toomey, B. G. (1988). Relationship between the deinstitutionalization model, psychiatric disability, and homelessness. Health and Social Work, 145-153.
11. Bentler, P. M. (1991). Modeling of intervention effects (NIDA Research Monograph 107, DHHS Publ. No. ADM 91-1761). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
12. Biglan, A., Hood, D., Brozovsky, P., Ochs, L., Ary, D., & Black, C. (1991). Subject attrition in prevention research. (NIDA Research Monograph 107, DHHS Publ. No. ADM 91-1761). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
13. Biglan, A., Severson, H., Ary, D., Faller, C., Gallison, C., Thompson, R., Glasgow, R., & Lichtenstein, E. (1987). Do smoking prevention programs really work? Attrition and the internal and external validity of an evaluation of a refusal skills training program. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 10, 159-171.
14. Billings, A. G., Cronkite, R. C., & Moos, R. (1985). Differences of follow-up and posttreatment functioning among depressed patients. Journal of Affective Disorders, 8(1), 9-16.
15. Boice, J. D., Jr (1978). Follow-up methods to trace women treated for pulmonary tuberculosis, 1930-1954. American Journal of Epidemiology, 107, 127-139.
16. Booth, A., & Johnson, D. R. (1985). Tracking respondents in a telephone interview panel selected by random digit dialing. Sociological Methods and Research, 14, 53-64.
17. Brown, C. H. (1990). Protecting against nonrandomly missing data in longitudinal studies. Biometrics, 46, 143-155.
18. Burgess, R. D. (1989). Major issues and implications of tracing survey respondents. In D. Kasprzyk, G. Duncan, G. Kalton, & M. P. Singh (Eds), Panel surveys (pp. 52-74). New York: Wiley.
19. Call, V., Otto, L., & Spenner, K. (1982). Tracking respondents: a multi-method approach. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
20. Calle, E. E., & Terrell, D. D. (1993). Utility of the National Death Index for ascertainment of mortality among cancer prevention study II participants. American Journal of Epidemiology, 137, 235-241.
21. Capaldi, D., & Patterson, G. R. (1987). An approach to the problem of recruitment and retention rates for longitudinal research. Behavioral Assessment, 9, 169-178.
22. CASRO (Council of American Survey Research Organizations) (1982). Report of the CASRO Completion Rates Task Force. New York: Audits and Surveys, Inc., unpublished report.
23. Chatham, L. R., & Simpson, D. D. (1994). Delivering and evaluating outpatient treatment: finding a practical balance. In F. M. Tims, B. W. Fletcher, & J. A. Inciardi (Eds), Drug abuse treatment: the implementation of innovative approaches. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
24. Clarridge, B. R., Sheehy, L. L., & Hauser, T. S. (1977). Tracing members of a panel: a 17-year follow-up. In K. F. Schuessler (Ed.), Sociological methodology (pp. 185-203). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
25. Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Missing data. In Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed., pp. 275-300). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
26. Cohen, E. H., Mowbray, C. T., Bybee, D., Yeich, S., Ribisl, K., & Freddolino, P. P. (1993). Tracking and follow-up methods for research on homelessness. Evaluation Review, 17, 331-352.
27. Conrad, K., Pope, A., Hultman, C., Daghestani, A., Lyons, J., Manheim, L., Elbaum, P., Lisiecki, J., McCarthy, M., Baxter, W., & Stiers, W. (1994). Case managed residential care for homeless addicted veterans: final report (Report No. U01 AA08818). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
28. Considine, M., & Nurco, D. M. (1991). Interviewing. In Followup fieldwork: AIDS outreach and IV drug abuse (DHHS Publication No. ADM 91-1736, pp. 87-97). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
29. Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (1979). The conduct of randomized experiments. In Quasi-experimentation: design and analysis issues for field settings (pp. 341-386). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
30. Craig, R. J. (1979). Locating drug addicts who have dropped out of treatment. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 30, 402-404.
31. Crider, D. M., & Willits, F. K. (1973). Respondent retrieval bias in a longitudinal study. Sociology and Social Research, 58, 56-65.
32. Crider, D., Willits, F., & Bealer, R. (1971). Tracking respondents in longitudinal surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 35, 613-620.
33. Cronbach, L. J., Ambron, S. R., Dornbusch, S. M., Hess, R. D., Hornik, R. C., Phillips, D. C., Walker, D. F., & Weiner, S. S. (1980). The shape of the field study. Toward reform of program evaluation (pp. 269-318). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
34. De Leeuw, E. D., & van der Zouwen, J. (1988). Data quality in telephone and face to face surveys: a comparative meta-analysis. In R. M. Groves, P. P. Biemer, L. E. Lyberg, J. T. Massey, W. L. Nicholls, & J. Waksberg (Eds), Telephone survey methodology (pp. 283-300). New York: Wiley.
35. Dillman, D. A. (1978). The Total Design Method (TDM): a new approach to mail and telephone surveys. In Mail and telephone surveys: the Total Design Method (pp. 1-38). New York: Wiley.
36. Dillman, D. A., & Tarnai, J. (1988). Administrative issues in mixed mode surveys. In R. M. Groves, P. P. Biemer, L. E. Lyberg, J. T. Massey, W. L. Nicholls II, & J. Waksberg (Eds), Telephone survey methodology (pp. 509-528). New York: Wiley.
37. Drew, J. D., & Choudhry, G. H. (1988). Nonresponse issues in government telephone surveys. In R. M. Groves, P. P. Biemer, L. E. Lyberg, J. T. Massey, W. L. Nicholls, & J. Waksberg (Eds), Telephone survey methodology (pp. 283-300). New York: Wiley.
38. Eby, K. K., Rumptz, M. H., & Sullivan, C. (1996). How feminist and ecological-community psychology methods can be combined in longitudinal research. Manuscript submitted for publication.
39. Eckland, B. K. (1968). Retrieving mobile cases in longitudinal surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly, 32, 51-64.
40. Ellickson, P. L., Bianca, D., & Schoeff, D. C. (1988). Containing attrition in school-based research: an innovative approach. Evaluation Review, 12, 331-351.
41. Engström, A., Adamsson, C., Allebeck, P., & Rydberg, U. (1991). Mortality in patients with substance abuse: a follow-up in Stockholm county, 1973-1984. International Journal of the Addictions, 26, 91-106.
42. Erdlen, D.L., McLellan, A. T., Cacciola, J. S., & Bragg, A. (no date). Follow-up procedures and techniques for locating out of treatment clients. Unpublished manuscript, The Substance Abuse Treatment Research Center, Departments of Psychiatry: Philadelphia VA Medical Center and The University of Pennsylvania.
43. Farrington, D. P., Gallagher, B., Morley, L., St Ledger, R. J., & West, D. J. (1990). Minimizing attrition in longitudinal research: methods of tracing and securing cooperation in a 24-year follow-up study. In D. Magnusson, & L. R. Bergman (Eds.) Data quality in longitudinal research (pp. 122-147). New York: Cambridge University Press.
44. Fay, R. E. (1989). Estimating nonignorable nonresponse in longitudinal surveys through causal modeling. In D. Kasprzyk, G. Duncan, G. Kalton, & M. P. Singh (Eds), Panel surveys (pp. 375-399). New York: Wiley.
45. Flick, S. N. (1988). Managing attrition in clinical research. Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 499-515.
46. Flynn, B. S., Worden, J. K., Secker-Walker, R. H., Badger, G. J., Geller, B. M., & Costanza, M. C. (1992). Prevention of cigarette smoking through mass media intervention and school programs. American Journal of Public Health, 82, 827-834.
47. Fowler, F. J., Jr (1991). Reducing interviewer-related error through interviewer training, supervision, and other means. In P. P. Biemer, R. M. Groves, L. E. Lyberg, N. A. Mathiowetz, & S. Sudman (Eds), Measurement errors in surveys (pp. 259-278). New York: Wiley.
48. Fowler, F. J., Jr (1993). Nonresponse: implementing a sample design. In Survey research methods (2nd ed., pp. 38-53). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
49. Fowler, F. J., Jr, & Mangione, T. W. (1990). Standarized interviewing techniques. In Standardized survey interviewing: minimizing interviewer related error (pp. 33-54). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
50. Friedman, H. S., Tucker, J. S., & Martin, L. R. (1994, Spring). If you want to be studied by health psychology, don't die in New York City. The Health Psychologist (pp. 13, 20).
51. Given, B. A., Keilman, L. J., Collins, C., & Given, C. W. (1990). Strategies to minimize attrition in longitudinal studies. Nursing Research, 39, 184-186.
52. Goldstein, P. J., Abbott, W., Paige, W., Sobel, I., & Soto, F. (1977). Tracking procedures in follow-up studies of drug abusers. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 4, 21-23.
53. Graham, J. W., & Donaldson, S. I. (1993). Evaluating interventions with differential attrition: the importance of nonresponse mechanisms and the use of follow-up data. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 119-128.
54. Gregory, M. M., Lohr, M. J., & Gilchrist, L. D. (1992). Methods for tracking pregnant and parenting adolescents. Evaluation Review, 17, 69-81.
55. Groves, R. M. (1989a). Nonresponse in sample surveys. In Survey-errors and survey costs (pp. 133-183). New York: Wiley.
56. Groves, R. M. (1989b). Probing the causes of nonresponse and efforts to reduce nonresponse. In Survey errors and survey costs (pp. 185-238). New York: Wiley.
57. Gunderson, T. L., & McGovern, R. (1989). How to locate anyone anywhere without leaving home. New York: Dutton.
58. Haastrup, S. & Jepsen, P. W. (1984). Seven year follow-up of 300 young drug abusers. Acta Psychiatrica Scandanavia, 70, 503-509.
59. Hansen, W. B., Collins, L. M., Malotte, C. K., Johnson, C. A., & Fielding, J. E. (1985). Attrition in prevention research. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 8, 261-275.
60. Hansen, W. B., Tobler, N. S., & Graham, J. W. (1990). Attrition in substance abuse prevention research: a meta-analysis of 85 longitudinally followed cohorts. Evaluation Review, 14, 677-685.
61. Harway, M. (1984). Some practical suggestions for minimizing subject attrition. In S. A. Mednick, M. Harway, & K. M. Finello (Eds), Handbook of longitudinal research (pp. 133-137). New York: Praeger.
62. Heyting, A., Tolboom, T. B. M., & Essers, J. G. A. (1992). Statistical handling of drop-outs in longitudinal clinical trials. Statistics in Medicine, 11, 2043-2061.
63. Homans, C. (1977). Interviewing respondents. In L. D. Johnston, D. N. Nurco, & L. N. Robins (Eds), Conducting followup research on drug treatment programs (Treatment Program Monograph Series, No. 2, pp. 85-97). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
64. Howard, K. I., Krause, M. S., & Orlinsky, D. E. (1986). The attrition dilemma: toward a new strategy for psychotherapy research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 54, 106-110.
65. Hser, Y., Anglin, M. D., & Powers, K. (1993). A 24-year follow-up of California narcotics addicts. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 577-584.
66. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (1991). Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. New England Journal of Medicine, 324, 424-428.
67. Josephson, E., & Rosen, M. A. (1978). Panel loss in a high school drug study. In D. B. Kandel (Ed.) Longitudinal research on drug use: empirical findings and methodological issues (pp. 115-133). New York: Wiley.
68. Kalton, G. (1983). Introduction to survey sampling. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
69. Kalton, G., & Kasprzyk, D. (1986). The treatment of missing survey data. Survey Methodology, 12, 1-16.
70. Kramer, F. M., Jeffery, R. W., & Snell, M. K. (1986). Monetary incentives to improve follow-up data collection. Psychological Reports, 58, 739-742.
71. LaPorte, D. J., McLellan, A. T., Erdlen, F. R., & Parente, R. J. (1981). Treatment outcome as a function of follow-up difficulty in substance abusers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 49, 112-119.
72. Lavrakas, P. J. (1993). Telephone survey methods: sampling, selection, and supervision (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
73. Lavrakas, P. J., Settersten, R. A., Jr, & Maier, R. A. (1991). RDD panel attrition in two local area surveys. Survey Methodology, 17(2), 143-152.
74. Lee, R. M. (1993). Asking sensitive questions: interviewing, Doing research on sensitive topics (pp. 97-117). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
75. Lepkowski, J. M. (1989). Treatment of wave nonresponse in panel surveys. In D. Kasprzyk, G. Duncan, G. Kalton, & M. P. Singh (Eds), Panel surveys (pp. 348-374). New York: Wiley.
76. Lillard, L. A. (1989). Sample dynamics: some behavioral issues. In D. Kasprzyk, G. Duncan, G. Kalton, & M. P. Singh (Eds), Panel surveys (pp. 497-511). New York: Wiley.
77. Little, R. J. A., & Rubin, D. B. (1987). Statistical analysis with missing data. New York: Wiley.
78. Madow, W. G., Olkin, I., & Rubin, D. B. (1983). Incomplete data in sample surveys (Vols 1-3). New York: Academic Press.
79. Marmor, J. K., Oliveria, S. A., Donahue, R. P., Garrahie, E. J., White, M. J., Moore, L. L., & Ellison, R. C. (1991). Factors encouraging cohort maintenance in a longitudinal study. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 44, 531-535.
80. May, P. R., Tuma, A. H., & Kraude, W. (1965). Community follow-up of treatment of schizophrenia: issues and problems. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 35, 754-763.
81. McAllister, R. J., Goe, S. J., & Butler, E. W. (1973). Tracking respondents in longitudinal surveys: some preliminary considerations. Public Opinion Quarterly, 37, 413-416.
82. McArdle, J. J., & Hamagami, F. (1992). Modeling incomplete longitudinal and cross sectional data using latent growth structural models. Experimental Aging Research (Quarterly Topics in Research in Aging - Special Issue), 18(3), 145-166.
83. McCaghy, C. H. (1971). Research problems in interviewing probationers. Crime and Delinquency, 17, 81-88.
84. McCoy, H. V., & Nurco, D. M. (1991). Locating subjects by traditional techniques. In Followup fieldwork: AIDS outreach and IV drug abuse (DHHS Publication No. ADM 91-1736, pp. 31-73). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
85. McLellan, A. T., Luborsky, L., Woody, G. E., & O'Brien, C. P. (1980). An improved diagnostic evaluation instrument for substance abuse patients: the Addiction Severity Index. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 168, 26-33.
86. Menard, S. (1991). Longitudinal Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
87. Miller, D. C. (1991). Handbook of research design and social measurement (5th ed., pp. 168-174). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
88. Mitchell, S., & Jackson, D. (1978). The feasibility of tracing a sample of school-boys after a lapse of fifteen years. Psychological Medicine, 8, 509-513.
89. Moos, R. & Bliss, F. (1978). Difficulty of follow-up and outcome of alcoholism treatment. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 39, 473-490.
90. Mowbray, C. T. & Ribisl, K. M. (1991, October). Outreach services to homeless individuals. In C. T. Mowbray (Chair), Interventions at the cutting edge of mental health. Symposium conducted at American Evaluation Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
91. Murray, D. M., Davis-Hearn, M., Goldman, A. I., Pirie, P., & Luepker, R. V. (1988). Four- and five-year follow-up results from four seventh-grade smoking prevention projects. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 11, 395-405.
92. Newcomb, M. D., & Bentler, P. M. (1988). Study design and sample. In Consequences of adolescent drug use: impact on the lives of young adults (pp. 41-53). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
93. Nurco, D. N., Bonito, A. J., Lerner, M., & Balter, M. B. (1975). Studying addicts over time: methodology and preliminary findings. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2, 183-196.
94. Nurco, D. N., & Lerner, M. (1971). The feasibility of locating addicts in the community. The International Journal of the Addictions, 6(1), 51-52.
95. Nurco, D. N., Robins, L. N., & O'Donnel, J. A. (1977). Locating respondents. In L. D. Johnston, D. N. Nurco, & L. N. Robins (Eds), Conducting followup research on drug treatment programs (Treatment Program Monograph Series, No. 2, pp. 71-84). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
96. O'Muircheartaigh, C. (1989). Sources of nonsampling error: discussion. In D. Kasprzyk, G. Duncan, G. Kalton, & M. P. Singh (Eds), Panel surveys (pp. 271-288). New York: Wiley.
97. Pirie, P. L., Thomson, S. J., Mann, S. L., Peterson, A. V., Murray, D. M., Flay, B. R., & Best, J. A. (1989). Tracking and attrition in longitudinal school-based smoking prevention research. Preventive Medicine, 18, 249-256.
98. Polich, J. M., Armor, D. J., & Braiker, H. B. (1980). The course of alcoholism: four years after treatment (Report R-2433-NIAAA). Santa Monica, CA: Rand.
99. Psaty, B. M., Cheadle, A., Koepsell, T. D., Diehr, P., Wickizer, T., Curry, S., Vonkorff, M., Perrin, E. B., Pearson, D. C., & Wagner, E. H. (1994). Race- and ethnicity-specific characteristics of participants lost to follow-up in a telephone cohort. American Journal of Epidemiology, 140, 161-171.
100. Raymond, M. R. (1986). Missing data in evaluation research. Evaluation and the Health Professions, 9, 395-420.
101. Rogers, C. D. (1986). Tracing missing persons: an introduction to agencies, methods, sources in England and Wales. Manchester University Press: Manchester, U.K.
102. Rosenheck, R., & Fischer, P. (1990, January). Longitudinal designs. Paper presented at the Homelessness and mental illness: toward the next generation of research studies, Bethesda, MD.
103. Rovine, M. J., & von Eye, A. (1991). Missing-data estimation for nested panel design, Applied computational statistics in longitudinal research (pp. 1-21). New York: Academic Press.
104. Rumptz, M. H., Sullivan, C. M., Davidson, W. S., & Basta, J. (1991). An ecological approach to tracking battered women over time. Violence and Victims, 6(3), 237-244.
105. Sarndal, C., Swensson, B., & Wretman, J. (1992). Nonresponse. In Model assisted survey sampling, (pp. 566-600). New York: Springer.
106. Showstack, J. A., Hargreaves, W. A., Glide, I. D., & O'Brien, R. S. (1978). Psychiatric follow-up studies: practical procedures and ethical concerns. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 166, 34-43.
107. Simpson, D. D. (1990). Research design and methods. In D. D. Simpson, & S. B. Sells (Eds), Opioid addiction and treatment: a 12-year follow-up (pp. 25-53). Malabar: Krieger.
108. Sobell, M. B., & Sobell, L. C. (1973). Alcoholics treated by individualized behavior therapy: one year treatment outcome. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 4, 49-72.
109. Sobell, L. C., Sobell, M. B., & Maisto, S. A. (1984). Follow-up attrition in alcoholism treatment studies: is "no news" bad news, good news, or no news?. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 13(1), 1-7.
110. Tebes, J. K., Snow, D. L., & Arthur, M. W. (1992). Panel attrition and external validity in the short-term follow-up study of adolescent substance abuse. Evaluation Review, 16, 151-170.
111. Thornberry, T. P., Bjerregaard, B., & Miles, W. (1993). The consequences of respondent attrition in panel studies: a simulation based on the Rochester Development Study. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 9(2), 127-158.
112. Thornton, A., Freedman, D. S., & Camburn, D. (1982). Obtaining respondent cooperation in family panel studies. Sociological Methods in Research, 11(1), 33-51.
113. Vannicelli, M., Pfau, B., & Ryback, R. S. (1976). Data attrition in follow-up studies of alcoholics. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 37, 1325-1329.
114. Wainer, H. (1989). Eelworms, bullet holes, and Geraldine Ferrraro: some problems with statistical adjustment and some solutions. Journal of Educational Statistics, 14, 121-140.
115. Wilson, A. J., III, & Webber, I. L. (1976). Attrition in a longitudinal study of an aged population. Experimental Aging Research, 2, 367-387.
116. Winefield, A. H., & Tiggemann, M. (1990). Sample attrition bias in a longitudinal study of young people. Australian Journal of Psychology, 42(1), 75-85.
117. Wright, J. D., Allen, T. L., & Devine, J. A. (1992, November). Tracking non-traditional populations in longitudinal studies. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Public Health Association, Washington, DC.
118. Zahrly, J. (1990). The use of discriminant analyses to determine subject attrition bias in field research. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 50, 505-514.