Surg Obes Relat Dis. 2021 Nov 27; doi: 10.1016/j.soard.2021.11.023. Epub 2021 Nov 27.
Five-year attrition, active enrollment, and predictors of level of participation in the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS-2) study.
Surgery for obesity and related diseases : official journal of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery
William F Gourash, Wendy C King, Eleanor Shirley, Amanda Hinerman, Faith Ebel, Alfons Pomp, Walter J Pories, Anita P Courcoulas
Affiliations
Affiliations
- Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: [email protected].
- Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- Department of Surgery, Division of GI Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York.
- Department of Surgery, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.
- Department of Surgery, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.
PMID: 35027321
DOI: 10.1016/j.soard.2021.11.023
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Reporting high-quality bariatric surgery outcomes depends on participant attrition and level of study participation among enrolled participants.
OBJECTIVES: Our aims are to report participant attrition, active enrollment, and level of participation, and to evaluate pre-surgery sociodemographic, physical health, and psychosocial factors as predictors of attrition and level of participation through 5 years.
SETTING: The Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery-2 study which enrolled 2458 adults undergoing a first bariatric surgical procedure at 1 of 6 US cites from 2006 through 2009.
METHODS: In-person research assessments were conducted pre-surgery and annually for five years. Extensive retention strategies including offering remote assessments (telephone, email, mail, or a combination) were fully implemented in 2009. Among living participants, including those inactivated, annual follow-up assessments were categorized as in-person, remote or missed through 5 years.
RESULTS: By year 5, 1.7% of participants had died and 3.2% had withdrawn or were inactivated by the study staff; thus, attrition was 4.9% (n = 121). Controlling for site and calendar year, missed assessments increased from 14.7%-21.8% between years 1 and 2 and then stayed relatively stable (20.8%-19.6%) for years 3-5. Younger age, male sex, White race, lower body mass index, smoking, illicit drug use, and higher weight loss expectations preoperatively were independently associated with a higher likelihood of a missed versus in-person assessment across follow-up.
CONCLUSION: The LABS-2 participant attrition was low. The percentage of missed assessments did not increase after year 2, perhaps due to implementation of a comprehensive retention plan. Predictors of missed assessments highlight subgroups to target for focused retention efforts.
Copyright © 2021 American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Attrition; Bariatric surgery; Follow-up studies; Longitudinal studies; Lost to follow-up; Patient compliance; Patient dropouts; Retention strategies
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