Does attrition during follow-up of a population cohort study inevitably lead to biased estimates of health status?

ABSTRACT: Attrition is a potential source of bias in cohort studies. Although attrition may be inevitable in cohort studies of older people, there is little empirical evidence as to whether bias due to such attrition is also inevitable. Anonymised primary care data, routinely collected in clinical practice and independent of any cohort research study, represents an ideal unselected comparison dataset with which to compare primary care data from consenting responders to a cohort study. Our objective was to use this method as a novel means to assess if (i) responders at follow-up stages in a cohort study remain representative of responders at baseline and (ii) attrition biases estimates of longitudinal associations. We compared primary care consultation morbidities and prescription prevalences among c

SUBMITTER: Lacey RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3875525 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature