Psychiatric and sociodemographic predictors of attrition in a longitudinalstudy - The Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS)

This article discusses the effects of sociodemographics and the presence of psychiatric disorders diagnosed in the 12 months before the first intervie w by using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-I II-R, third edition, revised, on three types of attrition (failure to locat e, refusal to participate, morbidity/mortality) in the second wave (1997-19 98) of the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study, a longitud inal, general population survey of psychopathology among 7,076 subjects age d 18-64 years. Compared with those reinterviewed successfully persons not l ocated at the 1-year follow-up (n = 219) were more often younger, poorly ed ucated, urban, not cohabiting with a steady partner, and born outside the N etherlands. Refusers (n = 923) had a lower educational level. Morbidity/mor tality (n = 72) was associated with higher age, lower educational level, no t being employed, and somatic disorders. After adjustment for sociodemograp hics, none of the disorders was positively associated with refusal. Failure to locate was linked to agoraphobia, alcohol abuse, and the categories of mood, substance use, and eating disorders. Morbidity/mortality was linked t o dysthymia, agoraphobia, simple phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the category of anxiety disorders. Overall attrition was only slightly hig her among respondents with one or more disorders (odds ratio = 1.20, 95% co nfidence interval. 1.04, 1.38). Thus, psychopathology has only weak-to-mode rate effects on attrition and is mainly related to failure to locate and mo rbidity/mortality but not to refusal.