What does it take to retain substance-abusing adolescents in research protocols? Delineation of effort required, strategies undertaken, costs incurred, and 6-month post-treatment differences by retention difficulty

被引:60
作者
Meyers, K [1 ]
Webb, A
Frantz, J
Randall, M
机构
[1] Univ Penn, Sch Med, Dept Psychiat, Ctr Studies Addict, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
[2] Univ Med & Dent New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Med Sch, Dept Psychiat, Camden, NJ 08103 USA
关键词
adolescents; retention; attrition; follow-up; alcohol and drug use; mental health; outcome;
D O I
10.1016/S0376-8716(02)00252-1
中图分类号
R194 [卫生标准、卫生检查、医药管理];
学科分类号
摘要
Research retention rates vary widely due to practical difficulties that can be exacerbated when participants are minors. This article describes: (1) the range of effort required and type of follow-up strategies used to complete face-to-face follow-up interviews with substance-abusing adolescent research participants; (2) common locations of follow-up interviews; and (3) characteristics of, difficult- versus easy-to-retain adolescent participants. Diverse contact strategies and numerous contact attempts were needed to obtain a 94% 1-month and 92% 6-month retention rate among substance-abusing adolescent research participants. About half of the youth did not respond to basic telephone tracking and required enhanced tracking efforts. Approximately 40% of the youth required 6 or more contacts prior to interview completion. The majority of follow-up interviews (60%) were conducted in community settings such as fast food restaurants, constituting the adolescent's preferred interview location. Telephone interviews were infrequent since adolescents wanted privacy and were concerned that a household member would listen to their answers. Those youth proving difficult-to-retain were significantly more likely to report serious problem behavior and poorer outcomes 6-months post-treatment within the alcohol/drug, juvenile justice, family, and educational domains. It was estimated that an additional $85 per participant per follow-up wave (over and above project budgets) was needed to adequately track, locate and interview an adolescent research participant. This expenditure appears reasonable to ensure a reliable/valid data set. Assessing the cost/benefit of different methods used in preventing attrition, identifying the minimum standards that avoid response bias and examining the impact of interviewer/ participant alliances on data reliability/validity is discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:73 / 85
页数:13
相关论文
共 33 条
[1]   ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS-NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS MODEL INPATIENT TREATMENT OF CHEMICALLY DEPENDENT ADOLESCENTS - A 2-YEAR OUTCOME STUDY [J].
ALFORD, GS ;
KOEHLER, RA ;
LEONARD, J .
JOURNAL OF STUDIES ON ALCOHOL, 1991, 52 (02) :118-126
[2]  
[Anonymous], SOC METHODOLOGY 1978
[3]  
BIGLAN A, 1991, NIDA RES MONOGRAPH, V107
[4]  
CAPALDI D, 1987, BEHAV ASSESS, V9, P169
[5]  
CAUCE AM, 1998, STUDYING MINORITY AD
[6]  
Cook T. D., 1979, QUASIEXPERIMENTATION, P341
[7]   Achieving a 96.6 percent follow-up rate in a longitudinal study of drug abusers [J].
Cottler, LB ;
Compton, WM ;
BenAbdallah, A ;
Horne, M ;
Claverie, D .
DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE, 1996, 41 (03) :209-217
[8]   Adolescents are not adults: Developmental considerations in alcohol users [J].
Deas, D ;
Riggs, P ;
Langenbucher, J ;
Goldman, M ;
Brown, S .
ALCOHOL-CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH, 2000, 24 (02) :232-237
[9]   OBTAINING FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEWS FOR TREATMENT EVALUATION [J].
DESMOND, DP ;
MADDUX, JF ;
JOHNSON, TH ;
CONFER, BA .
JOURNAL OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT, 1995, 12 (02) :95-102
[10]   CONTAINING ATTRITION IN SCHOOL-BASED RESEARCH - AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH [J].
ELLICKSON, PL ;
BIANCA, D ;
SCHOEFF, DC .
EVALUATION REVIEW, 1988, 12 (04) :331-351