@article{ref1,
title="Tracking assault-injured, drug-using youth in longitudinal research: follow-up methods",
journal="Academic emergency medicine",
year="2018",
author="Roche, Jessica S. and Clery, Michael J. and Carter, Patrick M. and Dora-Laskey, Aaron and Walton, Maureen A. L. and Ngo, Quyen M. and Cunningham, Rebecca M.",
volume="25",
number="11",
pages="1204-1215",
abstract="OBJECTIVES: Violence is one of the leading causes of death among youth ages 14 to 24. Hospital- and emergency department (ED)-based violence prevention programs are increasingly becoming a critical part of public health efforts; however, evaluation of prevention efforts is needed to create evidence-based best practices. Retention of study participants is key to evaluations, although little literature exists regarding optimizing follow-up methods for violently injured youth. This study aims to describe the methods for retention in youth violence studies and the characteristics of hard-to-reach participants. <br><br>METHODS: The Flint Youth Injury (FYI) Study is a prospective study following a cohort of assault-injured, drug-using youth recruited in an urban ED, and a comparison population of drug-using youth seeking medical or non-violence-related injury care. Validated survey instruments were administered at baseline and four follow-up time points (6, 12, 18, and 24 months). Follow-up contacts used a variety of strategies and all attempts were coded by type and level of success. Regression analysis was used to predict contact difficulty and follow-up interview completion at 24 months. <br><br>RESULTS: A total of 599 patients (ages 14-24) were recruited from the ED (mean ± SD age = 20.1 ± 2.4 years, 41.2% female, 58.2% African American), with follow-up rates at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of 85.3%, 83.7% 84.2%, and 85.3%, respectively. Participant contact efforts ranged from two to 53 times per follow-up time frame to complete a follow-up appointment, and more than 20% of appointments were completed off site at community locations (e.g., participants' homes, jail/prison). Participants who were younger (p < 0.05) and female (p < 0.01) were more likely to complete their 24-month follow-up interview. Participants who sought care in the ED for assault injury (p < 0.05) and had a substance use disorder (p < 0.01) at baseline required fewer contact attempts to complete their 24-month follow-up, while participants reporting a fight within the immediate 3 months before their 24-month follow-up (p < 0.01) required more intensive contact efforts. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The FYI study demonstrated that achieving high follow-up rates for a difficult-to-track, violently-injured ED population is feasible through the use of established contact strategies and a variety of interview locations. <br><br>RESULTS have implications for follow-up strategies planned as part of other violence prevention studies.<br><br>© 2018 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1069-6563",
doi="10.1111/acem.13495",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acem.13495"
}