title: Loss to follow-up in longitudinal psychiatric research.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany. eichler@psychologie.tu-dresden.de
authors.forename: Tilly
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eichler
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schützwohl
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Priebe
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Adamowski
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rymaszewska
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nawka
authors.forename: Ladislav
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ocvár
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kitzlerova
authors.forename: Jiri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Raboch
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Kallert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D011570:Psychiatry; D012106:Research