Participants Attrition in a Longitudinal Study: The Malaysian Cohort Study Experience

Abstract

The attrition rate of longitudinal study participation remains a challenge. To date, the Malaysian Cohort (TMC) study follow-up rate was only 42.7%. This study objective is to identify the cause of attrition among TMC participants and the measures to curb it. A total of 19,343 TMC participants from Kuala Lumpur and Selangor that was due for follow-up were studied. The two most common attrition reasons are undergoing medical treatment at another government or private health center (7.0%) and loss of interest in participating in the TMC project (5.1%). Those who were inclined to drop out were mostly Chinese, aged 50 years and above, unemployed, and had comorbidities during the baseline recruitment. We have also contacted 2183 participants for the home recruitment follow-up, and about 10.9% agreed to join. Home recruitment slightly improved the overall follow-up rate from 42.7% to 43.5% during the three-month study period.

Stability of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) measurements from whole blood samples kept at −196°C for seven to eight years in The Malaysian Cohort study

“…Briefly, the biospecimen (like blood and urine) and the data on sociodemographic characteristics, medications, and lifestyle were collected from the subjects who consented to participate in the study. To date, the study has successfully had a follow‐up of 42.7% of its participants 18 . In this study, as many as 191 out of 401 participants were diagnosed with diabetes using fasting blood glucose (FBG ≥7.00 mmol/L) and/or having a medical history of diabetes with medication.…”

“…To date, the study has successfully had a follow‐up of 42.7% of its participants. 18 In this study, as many as 191 out of 401 participants were diagnosed with diabetes using fasting blood glucose (FBG ≥7.00 mmol/L) and/or having a medical history of diabetes with medication.…”

Auditing the research practices and statistical analyses of the group-level temporal network approach to psychological constructs: A systematic scoping review

“…It could therefore make more sense to establish a minimum number of timepoints, such as only including in TEMPORAL NETWORK APPROACH: A SCOPING REVIEW 27 analyses participants who answered at least 20 timepoints (often considered the absolute minimum number of timepoints needed for analyses such as VAR models to run) or some other number of timepoints. It is also worth noting that participants with higher amounts of missing data, or even attrition, in longitudinal research may be those with higher symptom severity (e.g., Abdullah et al, 2021;Lamers et al, 2012), and so it can bias the results to exclude them. 5Node Selection.…”