Abstract
PurposeA decline in participation in research studies as people age is inevitable as health declines. This paper aims to address this by collecting data from a group of participants to examine their reasons for declining attendance and suggestions for maintaining attendance as participants age.Design/methodology/approachThis research used a postal self-completed questionnaire including open and closed questions. The questionnaire was sent to those participants who have declined to attend further clinic visits. Results were analysed using thematic content analysis.FindingsThe study had a 51% response rate. Participants reported difficulty with travelling to the clinic, and health as the main issues in addition to family demands and a lack of understanding regarding the continuing participation of a singleton twin.Research limitations/implicationsThis study could only include data from responding participants, answers to open question also included comments from participants regarding their twin.Practical implicationsAn anonymous questionnaire was sent to all individuals in the Keeping Together project. It was therefore not possible to identify if responses were from both members of a twin pair.Originality/valueMaintaining participation in longitudinal studies is of crucial importance to enhance the value of data. Retention of participants in studies may change as people age and health becomes impaired. Suggestions for maintaining and improving the retention of older participants have been identified and are generalisable to other longitudinal studies of ageing.
Highlights
Research that follows people over a period of time – longitudinal studies – are increasingly being recognised as of great importance to help understand the ageing process
Of the 151 participants surveyed, 79 j j PAGE 106 WORKING WITH OLDER PEOPLE VOL. 25 NO. 2 2021 returned a postal survey giving a response rate of 52% over a period of five months (January–May 2019)
Analysis of open questions on a questionnaire can be dismissed as not relevant and not considered as part of a quantitative analysis. This is considered unethical as participants have taken time to express their thoughts and opinions which included in free text (O’Cathain and Thomas, 2004)
Summary
Research that follows people over a period of time – longitudinal studies – are increasingly being recognised as of great importance to help understand the ageing process. The research we are reporting here is based on the long running study of twins, based at St Thomas’ Hospital, London: TwinsUK. It is the UK’s largest registry of adult twins. It was started in 1992 and encompasses over 15,000 volunteer male and female twins aged 18–103 from all over the UK (Bowyer et al, 2019; Verdi et al, 2019). It is predominately female (82%) and middle-aged people (mean age, 59)
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