title: Impact of losses to follow-up on diet/alcohol and lung cancer analyses in the New York State Cohort.
abstract: The main objective of the study was to evaluate whether passive surveillance methods can be used in cohort studies without a significant distortion of risk estimates when the active follow-up of every participant is not possible. A nested case-control study including 525 lung cancer cases and 525 controls was conducted among participants of the New York State Cohort Study (n = 57,968 men and women), which allowed the active follow-up of a sample of the cohort and the assessment of the effect of losses to follow-up. Although there were some differences with respect to dietary intake between controls lost to follow-up and those located, the results of the nested case-control study including and excluding losses to follow-up were comparable. Moreover, the results derived from the passive and the active follow-up data were similar. Our findings lent credence to passive follow-up methods and suggested that losses to follow-up did not compromise the validity of the study. Although attempts to trace every participant are preferable in a cohort study, passive surveillance may yield unbiased risk estimates when a rare disease is being investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-2882, USA. bandera@aesop.rutgers.edu
authors.forename: Elisa V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Bandera
authors.forename: Jo L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Freudenheim
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Roger L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Priore
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brasure
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baptiste
authors.forename: Saxon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Graham
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009518:New York