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Factors influencing attrition in a multisite, randomized, clinical trial following traumatic brain injury in
Robert Z Blaha1, Anne B Arnett, Michael W Kirkwood
1Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora (Mr Blaha and Ms Arnett); Children's Hospital Colorado & University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora (Dr Kirkwood); Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital & Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (Dr Taylor); MetroHealth Medical Center & Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (Dr Stancin); Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota (Dr Brown); and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center & University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio (Dr Wade).
Background:
Attrition in longitudinal research negatively affects statistical power, disrupts statistical stability, and can produce unwanted bias.
Objective:
To investigate factors associated with shorter length of study participation and lower rates of study completion (ie, attrition) in a large, multisite, longitudinal, randomized, clinical trial examining the efficacy of a Web-based family problem-solving treatment following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in adolescence.
Setting:
Five major trauma centers in the central and western regions of the United States.
Participants:
Children (N = 132) aged 12 to 17 years hospitalized for complicated mild to severe TBI within the previous 6 months.
Results:
Completers had a higher primary caregiver education and higher family income than noncompleters, whereas ethnicity, latency to baseline assessment, and intervention group were not significantly associated with study completion.
Conclusion:
This is the first study that has specifically examined factors of attrition in a pediatric TBI population. The results suggest that research on pediatric TBI populations may be biased toward higher-income families and highlights the importance of designing studies with increased awareness of the impact of participant demographic factors.