title: Follow-up contact bias in evaluation of substance abuse treatment programs.
abstract: This study examined the problem of follow-up contact bias in evaluation of substance abuse treatment programs using administrative data sets. Completed discharges in Iowa were compared to clients contacted 6 months after treatment. The percent of clients reporting no substance use doubled between admission to treatment and follow-up. Unemployment, arrests, and number of days of work or school missed declined. However, clients included in the follow-up sample were significantly different in terms of risk factors for adverse outcomes. The authors conclude that improvements in social functioning 6 months after discharge cannot be generalized to the entire population of clients treated, since those not found have a different combination of risk factors.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Hospital and Health Administration, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242, USA. james-rohrer@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Rohrer
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Vaughan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cadoret
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zwick
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015982:Bias; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007484:Iowa; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000592:standards*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*