- Title
- Effect of telephone follow-up on retention and balance in an alcohol intervention trial
- Creator
- Johnson, Natalie A.; Kypri, Kypros; McCambridge, Jim; Latter, Joanna; McElduff, Patrick; Attia, John; Saitz, Richard; Saunders, John B.; Wolfenden, Luke; Dunlop, Adrian; Doran, Christopher
- Relation
- NHMRC.1023734
- Relation
- Preventive Medicine Reports Vol. 2, Issue 2015, p. 746-749
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2015.08.016
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Objectives: Telephone follow-up is not currently recommended as a strategy to improve retention in randomized trials. The aims of this study were to estimate the effect of telephone follow-up on retention, identify participant characteristics predictive of questionnaire completion during or after telephone follow-up, and estimate the effect of including participants who provided follow-up data during or after telephone follow-up on balance between randomly allocated groups in a trial estimating the effect of electronic alcohol screening and brief intervention on alcohol consumption in hospital outpatients with hazardous or harmful drinking. Method: Trial participants were followed up 6 months after randomization (June-December 2013) using e-mails containing a hyperlink to a web-based questionnaire when possible and by post otherwise. Telephone follow-up was attempted after two written reminders and participants were invited to complete the questionnaire by telephone when contact was made. Results: Retention before telephone follow-up was 62.1% (520/837) and 82.8% (693/837) afterward: an increase of 20.7% (173/837). Therefore, 55% (95% CI 49%-60%) of the 317 participants who had not responded after two written reminders responded during or after the follow-up telephone call. Age < 55. years, a higher AUDIT-C score and provision of a mobile/cell phone number were predictive of questionnaire completion during or after telephone follow-up. Balance between randomly allocated groups was present before and after inclusion of participants who completed the questionnaire during or after telephone follow-up. Conclusion: Telephone follow-up improved retention in this randomized trial without affecting balance between the randomly allocated groups.
- Subject
- telephone; lost to follow-up; randomized controlled trial; alcohol consumption
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1329721
- Identifier
- uon:26221
- Identifier
- ISSN:2211-3355
- Rights
- © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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