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. 2016 Nov;31(11):1135-1147.
doi: 10.1007/s10654-016-0217-8. Epub 2016 Dec 19.

The MRC National Survey of Health and Development reaches age 70: maintaining participation at older ages in a birth cohort study

Diana Kuh  1 , Andrew Wong  2 , Imran Shah  2 , Adam Moore  2 , Maria Popham  2 , Philip Curran  2 , Daniel Davis  2 , Nikhil Sharma  2 , Marcus Richards  2 , Mai Stafford  2 , Rebecca Hardy  2 , Rachel Cooper  2
Affiliations

The MRC National Survey of Health and Development reaches age 70: maintaining participation at older ages in a birth cohort study

Diana Kuh et al. Eur J Epidemiol. 2016 Nov.

Abstract

A life course approach to ageing relies on maintaining participation rates in national birth cohorts and other long-term longitudinal studies. This reduces the risk of selective attrition biasing associations between lifetime risk factors and health outcomes in later life and ensures the studies remain as representative as possible of the original population. We report the participation patterns for a postal questionnaire and home visit at 68-69 years of study members in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, the oldest and longest-running British birth cohort study. We investigated how participation varied by lifetime and recent contact, health status, previous clinical feedback and study engagement, taking account of prior socioeconomic and cognitive characteristics. Overall participation and home visit participation remained high (94 and 80%, respectively) and there were no gender differences. Participation was higher in those with higher levels of prior contact and lower in those with the poorest health status. Having previously received clinical feedback on actionable blood results was associated with reduced home visit participation but other forms of clinical feedback were not associated with subsequent participation. Activities that fostered study engagement were associated with increased home visit participation. These findings inform strategies to maintain participation in life course studies.

Keywords: Attrition; Birth cohort; Life course epidemiology; Longitudinal study; Older adults; Participation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with ethical standards Ethical approval All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Deriving the target samples for the postal questionnaire at age 68 and the home visit at age 69 in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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