Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jul;69(4):567-74.
doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbt046. Epub 2013 Jun 2.

Selectivity of attrition in longitudinal studies of cognitive functioning

Timothy A Salthouse  1
Affiliations

Selectivity of attrition in longitudinal studies of cognitive functioning

Timothy A Salthouse. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2014 Jul.

Abstract

Objectives: Identify characteristics distinguishing people who do and do not continue to participate in a longitudinal study and determine whether the longitudinal changes for people who continue are representative of the changes that would have occurred had longitudinal data been available from all of the initial participants.

Method: Moderately large samples of returning (N = 2,082) and nonreturning (N = 1,698) participants across a wide age range (i.e., 18-97 years of age) performed a battery of cognitive tests and completed personality and mood questionnaires. Differences between the groups were examined with multiple regression analyses with age, returner status, and their interaction as predictors.

Results: Compared with participants who did not return, returning participants at the initial occasion had higher levels of each cognitive ability and of certain personality characteristics (e.g., agreeableness and openness), but many of the differences were only apparent among adults older than 50 years of age. Importantly, there was no evidence that the longitudinal change for nonreturning participants would have been different from that among the participants who did return.

Discussion: The phenomenon of selective attrition is more complex than often assumed, and it may not necessarily limit the generalizability of longitudinal comparisons.

Keywords: Attrition; Cognitive change; Longitudinal..

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Estimated IQ at the first occasion for adults who did and who did not return for a second occasion as a function of age decade. Error bars are standard errors.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Change (T2 − T1 difference in composite scores) in returning participants at estimated IQ levels at T1 corresponding to those for returning and nonreturning participants as a function of age decade.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Observed change (T2 − T1 difference in composite scores) for returning participants and imputed change for nonreturning participants as a function of age decade. Error bars are standard errors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Backman L., MacDonald S. W. S. (2006). Death and cognition: Synthesis and outlook. European Psychologist, 11, 224–235. 10.1027/1016-9040.11.3.161
    1. Baltes P. B., Schaie K. W., Nardi A. H. (1971). Age and experimental mortality in a seven-year longitudinal study of cognitive behavior. Developmental Psychology, 5, 18–26. 10.1037/h0031085
    1. Cacioppo J. T., Petty R. E., Feinstein J. A., Jarvis W. B. G. (1996). Dispositional differences in cognitive motivation: The life and times of individuals varying in Need for Cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 197–253. 10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.197
    1. Chatfield M. D., Brayne C. E., Matthews F. E. (2005). A systematic literature review of attrition between waves in longitudinal studies in the elderly shows a consistent pattern of drop out between differing studies. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 58, 13–19. 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2004.05.006 - PubMed
    1. Cooney T. M., Schaie K. W., Willis S. L. (1988). The relationship between prior functioning on cognitive and personality dimensions and subject attrition in longitudinal research. Journal of Gerontology, 43, P12–P17. 10.1093/geronj/43.1.P12 - PubMed

Publication types