Does follow-up loss reflect poor outcome?

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Services Research
• Clinical Psychology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Accurate follow-up data is crucial for comparing mental health treatment effectiveness.
• Low response rates in follow-up surveys are a persistent challenge.
• Concerns exist that low response rates may overestimate treatment effectiveness due to poor patient adjustment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between patient posthospital adjustment and mailed questionnaire response rates.
• To compare the adjustment of patients who responded to mail surveys with those who did not.
• To identify factors influencing low follow-up response rates in mental health services research.

Main Methods:

• Compared follow-up adjustment data from patients who returned mail questionnaires with data from non-responders interviewed by phone.
• Analyzed patient adjustment levels in relation to survey response behavior.

Main Results:

• Patient posthospital adjustment was not a significant predictor of mail questionnaire return.
• Low response rates were primarily determined by data collector style.
• The motivation level of questionnaire recipients also played a key role in response rates.

Conclusions:

• Findings challenge the assumption that low response rates indicate poor patient adjustment in mental health studies.
• Data collector characteristics and recipient motivation are critical factors affecting follow-up survey participation.
• Methodological improvements focusing on data collection strategies are needed to enhance response rates and improve the accuracy of treatment effectiveness evaluations.