Commentary: Factors associated with non-participation in cohort studies emphasize the need to generalize the results with care.

Motoki Iwasaki

doi:10.2188/jea.je20140269

Abstract

Commentary: Factors associated with non-participation in cohort studies emphasize the need to generalize the results with care.

Highlights

Hara and colleagues investigated factors associated with non-participation in a face-to-face second survey conducted 5 years after the baseline survey in one study area of the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study (J-MICC).[1]
The study was comprehensive and well organized: information from the baseline questionnaire was compared between participants and non-participants in the face-to-face second survey, and the self-reported incidence of disease during the 5-year follow-up was compared between participants and non-participants by a mail and telephone health survey of the non-participants
Iwasaki and colleagues demonstrated a practical example of the degree of generalizability of relative risk (RR) estimates using data from a large population-based prospective cohort study, the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective (JPHC) Study.[3]

Summary

Introduction

Hara and colleagues investigated factors associated with non-participation in a face-to-face second survey conducted 5 years after the baseline survey in one study area of the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study (J-MICC).[1]. Hara and colleagues investigated factors associated with non-participation in a face-to-face second survey conducted 5 years after the baseline survey in one study area of the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study (J-MICC).[1] The study was comprehensive and well organized: information from the baseline questionnaire was compared between participants and non-participants in the face-to-face second survey, and the self-reported incidence of disease during the 5-year follow-up was compared between participants and non-participants by a mail and telephone health survey of the non-participants.

Results

Conclusion