This article examines the demographic characteristics of youth who were interviewed on time, located late or lost for a second interview in a three-year study of vulnerable adolescents called the New Zealand youth transitions study. It reports on the results of an analysis to determine whether or not the considerable effort invested in trying to locate these youth three times made a difference to the quality of the data. Chi-Square test, Fisher's exact test and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were used to analyse the relationship between completion times, demographic factors and key variables of interest to the study (risk, resilience, functional outcomes, service-use history and service quality). Results revealed that both the key variables of interest and demographic factors significantly varied across completion times. Double interaction by age and completion time emerged across specific sub-scales that represented risk and service-use history. This suggests that the effort invested in locating youth was valuable in terms of reducing bias in results and that suitable techniques of handling 'late and lost to follow-up' data are required in order to fully understand the key factors influencing the lives of vulnerable youth.

Z 61) did not list their religion, and 8% (n Z 22) identified as another religion. Most patients were proficient in English (82.1%, n Z 624), and 85% of patients were white. 665 consults were placed in the inpatient setting. 60% (n Z 452) were placed by a physician, 31% (n Z 234) were placed by another healthcare provider, 6% (n Z 43) were placed by social work/patient representative, and only 2% (n Z 15) were placed by the patient or family. Of all ethics consults, 55% (n Z 416) involved end-oflife issues, 39% (n Z 296) involved patient autonomy, 4% (n Z 31) involved beneficence, and 2% (n Z 17) involved other issues. Of these consults, 16% (n Z 124) of the patients either received radiation within 30 days of ethics consult or had an inpatient consult for radiation placed. There were no significant differences in age, gender, race, or languagepreference based on radiation oncology involvement. For consults involving radiation oncology, 58% (n Z 72) involved end-of-life issues, 39% (n Z 48) involved patient autonomy issues; 2% (n Z 3) involved beneficence. On univariate analysis, there were no statistically significant differences for reason of ethics consultation based on radiation oncology involvement. Conclusion: About one in six ethics consultations may involve radiation oncologists. Over half of these consults involve end-of-life issues, such as futility, withdrawal of treatment and goals of care. As such, radiation oncologists have an important opportunity to be involved in these discussions.

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