TY - JOUR PY - 2018// TI - Comparative analysis of emergency department patients lost to follow-up after computerized alcohol screening and brief intervention JO - Journal of human behavior in the social environment A1 - Hosseini Farahabadi, Maryam A1 - Chakravarthy, Bharath A1 - Hoonpongsimanont, Wirachin A1 - Vaca, Federico E. A1 - McCoy, Christopher E. A1 - Anderson, Craig Lewis A1 - Imani, Ghasem A1 - Wong, Priscilla A1 - Lotfipour, Shahram SP - 623 EP - 631 VL - 28 IS - 5 N2 - Many studies have evaluated the effectiveness of alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) but most of them have reported substantial loss to follow-up without investigating the characteristics of those lost to follow-up. We examined the association between Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores, readiness-to-change scores and the demographic factors with lost to follow-up. This retrospective study compared demographic characteristics, AUDIT and readiness-to-change scores for 190 lost to follow-up patients to 221 completed follow-up patients who participated in SBI in the Emergency Department between June 2006 and May 2007. Comparing the association between baseline characteristics and completed follow-up rate, those 30-39, 40-49 and 50 years and older had 0.46 (95% CI 0.32-0.91), 0.49 (95% CI 0.29-0.90) and 0.58 (95%CI 0.22-0.79) lower odds of completing follow-up, respectively, in comparison to those 18-29 years of age. The loss to follow-up group reported more negative consequences of alcohol and binge drinking than the completed follow-up group (p = 0.04). Using logistic regression, patients who experienced more negative effects of alcohol had 0.87 lower odds of completing follow-up (95% CI 0.79-0.96). The patients lost to follow-up in this study were significantly different in age and alcohol drinking habits compared to those completed follow-ups. It is important to consider differential loss to follow-up in assessing the validity and generalizability of intervention studies. This could help in tailoring methods of approaching patients based on target population characteristics.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1091-1359 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2018.1449692 ID - ref1 ER -