Premium
Tracking Substance Abusers in Longitudinal Research: Understanding Follow‐Up Contact Difficulty
Author(s) -
Walton Maureen A.,
Ramanathan Chathapuram S.,
Reischl Thomas M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1023/a:1022128519196
Subject(s) - attrition , health psychology , psychology , longitudinal study , tracking (education) , substance abuse , public health , clinical psychology , longitudinal data , substance abuse treatment , psychiatry , medicine , demography , nursing , dentistry , pedagogy , pathology , sociology
Studies examining follow‐up contact difficulty provide useful information for planning longitudinal studies and for assessing the validity of follow‐up data. Contact difficulty was examined among 96 substance abusers following substance abuse treatment. Interview completion rates at the 3‐month and 6‐month follow‐ups were 93 and 97%, respectively. The extent of contact efforts required to complete follow‐up interviews varied substantially but tended to be greater at the 3‐month follow‐up than at the 6‐month follow‐up. Contact difficulty was related to reuse of substances at the 3‐month and at the 6‐month follow‐ups with reusers requiring greater contact efforts than abstainers. None of the baseline individual and contextual variables examined significantly predicted level of contact effort at follow‐ups. Attrition‐related validity implications are discussed along with practical suggestions for planning tracking efforts.