Open AccessFactors influencing attrition in 35 Alzheimer’s Disease Centers across the USA: a longitudinal examination of the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center’s Uniform Data Set
Author(s) -
Shanna L. Burke,
Tianyan Hu,
Mitra Naseh,
Nicole M. Fava,
Janice O’Driscoll,
D. Alvarez,
Linda B. Cottler,
Ranjan Duara
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
aging clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1720-8319
pISSN - 1594-0667
DOI - 10.1007/s40520-018-1087-6
Subject(s) - attrition , longitudinal study , dementia , gerontology , alzheimer's disease , generalizability theory , psychology , disease , medicine , clinical psychology , psychiatry , developmental psychology , pathology , dentistry
A lack of understanding of the causes of attrition in longitudinal studies of older adults may lead to higher attrition rates and bias longitudinal study results. In longitudinal epidemiological studies of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, high rates of attrition may cause a systematic underestimation of dementia prevalence and skew the characterization of the disease. This can compromise the generalizability of the study results and any inferences based on the surviving sample may grossly misrepresent the importance of the risk factors for dementia. The National Institute on Aging outlined a National Strategy for Recruitment and Participation in Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Research to address this problem, providing evidence of the magnitude of this problem.