Travel barriers, unemployment, and external fixation predict loss to follow-up after surgical management of lower extremity fractures in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Predict loss to follow-up in prospective clinical investigations of lower extremity fracture surgery.

Design

Secondary analysis of 2 prospective clinical trials.

Setting

National public orthopaedic and neurologic trauma tertiary referral hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a low-income country in sub-Saharan Africa.

Patients/participants

Three hundred twenty-nine femoral shaft and 240 open tibial shaft fracture patients prospectively enrolled in prospective controlled trials of surgical fracture management by external fixation, plating, or intramedullary nailing between June 2015 and March 2017.

Intervention

Telephone contact for failure to attend scheduled 1-year clinic visit.

Main outcome measurements

Ascertainment of primary trial ou

SUBMITTER: Patterson JT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8081490 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature