Quantification of the completeness of follow-up

Lancet. 2002 Apr 13;359(9314):1309-10. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(02)08272-7.

Abstract

Completeness of follow-up is important, especially in clinical trials, since unequal follow-up in the treatment groups can bias the analysis of results. In survival studies, information on participants who do not complete the study is often omitted because their data can be included up to the time at which they were lost to follow-up. We propose a simple measure of completeness that is the ratio of the total observed person-time and the potential person-time of follow-up in a study. Our measure is easy to calculate, can be illustrated pictorially, and can be used to identify subgroups with especially poor follow-up.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Clinical Trials as Topic*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies*
  • Humans
  • Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / drug therapy*
  • Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / mortality
  • Multiple Myeloma / drug therapy*
  • Multiple Myeloma / mortality
  • Ovarian Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Ovarian Neoplasms / mortality
  • Survival Analysis