RACE-SPECIFIC AND ETHNICITY-SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTICIPANTS LOST TO FOLLOW-UP IN A TELEPHONE COHORT

The purpose of this study was to describe race- and ethnicity-specific characteristics of subjects lost to follow-up. For a study of communi ty-based health interventions, adult subjects from 11 US communities w ere initially recruited by random digit dialing and interviewed by tel ephone in 1988; 2 years later, they were recontacted, and the same sur vey was administered a second time. Associations with loss to follow-u p were assessed in separate models for whites, African Americans, Hisp anic Americans, and Asian Americans. After 2 years, 40.8% of the 5,851 participants were lost to follow-up; cohort attrition was highest amo ng African Americans (51.3%) and lowest among whites (37.5%). Age, asp ects of employment, education, marital status, and income were signifi cant independent predictors of loss to follow-up for one or more of th e four racial and ethnic groups. Characteristics of subjects lost to f ollow-up in this telephone cohort differed among various racial and et hnic groups. After adjustment for demographic, socioeconomic, and heal th status variables, the important behavioral predictors of loss to fo llow-up were current smoking for whites (p < 0.05), having a high fat diet for African Americans (p < 0.10), consuming one or more alcoholic drinks per day for Hispanic Americans (p < 0.10), and high levels of physical activity for Asian Americans (p < 0.05).