Loss to follow-up in longitudinal psychiatric research.
OBJECTIVE
To analyse factors that differentiate patients who attend follow-up assessments versus those who do not, and to identify predictors for drop-out within the context of the European Day Hospital Evaluation Study (EDEN-Study).


METHODS
The EDEN-Study, a multi-center RCT comparing acute psychiatric day care with inpatient care, required re-assessment of patients at discharge, 3 and 12 months after discharge. Follow-up rates varied between 54.0% and 99.5%. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients who did and did not attend follow-up were analysed using uni- and multivariate statistical methods.


RESULTS
Univariate analyses showed differences between patients regarding study site, treatment setting, living situation, employment, age, psychopathological symptoms and treatment satisfaction. They were not confirmed in multivariate analyses thus meaningful predictors of drop-out could not be identified.


CONCLUSIONS
Results emphasize the general need to compare patients re-assessed and not re-assessed in terms of their most relevant socio-demographic and clinical variables to assess the generalizability of results.
Eichler
Tilly
T
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany. eichler@psychologie.tu-dresden.de
Schützwohl
Matthias
M
Priebe
Stefan
S
Wright
Donna
D
Adamowski
Tomasz
T
Rymaszewska
Joanna
J
Nawka
Petr
P
Ocvár
Ladislav
L
Kitzlerova
Eva
E
Raboch
Jiri
J
Kallert
Thomas W
TW
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D011570:Psychiatry; D012106:Research