Reasons For Dropout Research Articles

Supervised Home-Based Exercise Prehabilitation in Unfit Patients Scheduled for Pancreatic Surgery: Protocol for a Multicenter Feasibility Study.

Morbidity rates in pancreatic surgery are high, and frail patients with low aerobic capacity are especially at risk of complications and require prophylactic interventions. Previous studies of small patient cohorts receiving intra-abdominal surgery have shown that an exercise prehabilitation program increases aerobic capacity, leading to better treatment outcomes. In this study, we aim to assess the feasibility of a home-based exercise prehabilitation program in unfit patients scheduled for pancreatic surgery on a larger scale. In this multicenter study, adult patients scheduled for elective pancreatic surgery with a preoperative oxygen uptake (VO2) at the ventilatory anaerobic threshold ≤13 mL/kg/min or a VO2 at peak exercise ≤18 mL/kg/min will be recruited. A total of 30 patients will be included in the 4-week, home-based, partly supervised exercise prehabilitation program. The program comprises 25-minute high-intensity interval training on an advanced cycle ergometer 3 times a week. Training intensity will be based on steep ramp test performance (ie, a short-term maximal exercise test on a cycle ergometer), aiming to improve aerobic capacity. Twice a week, patients will perform functional task exercises to improve muscle function and functional mobility. A steep ramp test will be repeated weekly, and training intensity will be adjusted accordingly. Next to assessing the feasibility (participation rate, reasons for nonparticipation, adherence, dropout rate, reasons for dropout, adverse events, and patient and therapist appreciation) of this program, individual patients' responses to prehabilitation on aerobic capacity, functional mobility, body composition, quality of life, and immune system factors will be evaluated. Recruitment for this study began in January 2022 and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2023. Results of this study will provide important clinical and scientific knowledge on the feasibility of a partly supervised home-based exercise prehabilitation program in a vulnerable patient population. This might ease the path to implementing prehabilitation programs in unfit patients undergoing complex abdominal surgery, such as pancreatic surgery. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05496777; https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05496777. DERR1-10.2196/46526.

Dropout Cause of Elementary School Children in West Java, Indonesia: A Descriptive Study from The Academic-Economic Perspective, and Its Relation to The Pandemic

Objective: This study aims to identify the dropout cause of elementary school children in West Java, Indonesia, especially from the academic and economic perspective. Method: The method used is a descriptive study by distributing an online questionnaire on the relation of schools having dropout children in elementary and junior high school in West Java, Indonesia. Results: The study results show that the reasons for dropouts are the pandemic condition, the environment, laziness, and there is no budget for the school. Most children who dropped out of school during the pandemic stated that learning was not fun, most children desire to return to school, and most dropout children are girls. Most of the dropout families are in the lower middle-class economy. Novelty: The study explained the dropout cause of elementary school in West Indonesia using primary data, which contained the academic and economic factors and their relation to the pandemic that the other previous studies have not revealed.

Benefits for cardiovascular system, bone density, and quality of life of a long-term hormone therapy in hysterectomized women: a 20-year follow-up study.

The safety, consequences, and dosage of long-term hormone therapy (HT) for postmenopausal women remain unclear. Our aim was to analyze the effects of HT after 20 years of therapy in women after hysterectomy, focusing on the symptoms of menopause, blood pressure, lipid profiles, and bone density. A prospective observational longitudinal study was designed. The initial transdermal estradiol dose was reduced in half (0.025 mg/d) at 60 years of age. Different parameters including demographic, cardiovascular, bone density, and metabolic variables, as well as quality of life characteristics, were analyzed using bivariate analyses. Multivariate generalized estimating equations for longitudinal data were fitted for differences over time and between doses (<60 vs ≥60 y) using the R package geepack. After 20 years of HT, the mean age of 56 studied hysterectomized women was 67.1 years. The mean Kupperman index score decreased from 26.7 to 12.0 ( P < 0.001). A trend with total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduction and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increase was observed over time. A decrease in very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( P = 0.05) and an increase in T score vertebral densitometry ( P = 0.014) were detected after HT. No changes in health outcome were detected in women older than 60 years with the reduced dose of HT. Breast cancer was the reason for dropouts in 0.02% women. HT for up to 20 years after hysterectomy may be beneficial for bone and cardiovascular health and for the overall quality of life. Our data suggest the importance of evaluating the dose and the timing of HT.

Dropout &amp; Prevention in Fitness Sports

High drop-out rates in sports programmes, both health and therapeutic sports, are not exceptional. Long-term retention of active athletes is a problem. This is equally true for fitness training in fitness clubs, where about half of the active individuals drop out prematurely. The aim of this study is to create a comprehensive inventory of the dropout problem and the prevention of it in fitness sports. From the results obtained, recommendations for action can be derived to increase customer satisfaction in fitness facilities and thus reduce the dropout rate in the long term. Methodologically, a review of the relevant literature was conducted in this study. When analysing various research results, it was found that dropping out of a sports programme always depends on several factors. Characteristics of dropping out of sports activity can be personal as well as situational and structural. While it is often possible to identify individual reasons that ultimately tip the balance in favour of quitting, this is usually influenced by a complex set of factors. The reason that fitness club membership fees are too expensive is found at the top of the list in all known studies, followed by the statement that the time spent on sport is too much. Relocation, job and family reasons, other hobbies and, last but not least, health reasons are then usually found in the further course of the lists of dropout reasons. All these reasons seem plausible, but they may also be feigned. They are often difficult to verify by those responsible in the fitness clubs and usually have to be accepted as such. They are rather unsuitable for use in successful dropout prevention. At most, stated health reasons can play a role for preventive measures, but not if serious diseases are involved. Essential demands on the management of a fitness club are therefore the creation of a good social atmosphere during training, time-efficient training programs, fun during the training, fulfilment of training goals and intensive support mechanisms. Only sensible innovations, market-oriented behaviour and flexibility can lead to future success in the fast-moving fitness market.

Occupational therapy-based self-management education in persons with post-COVID-19 condition related fatigue: a feasibility study with a pre-post design

Purpose Persons with post-COVID condition are a growing population requiring support returning to everyday life. Energy management education (EME) is a group self-management intervention based on energy conservation and management strategies delivered by occupational therapists. Data on the effectiveness of EME in persons with long COVID-related fatigue still need to be provided. This study aims to investigate procedural and methodological parameters to plan a future study analyzing the effectiveness of EME in individuals with post-COVID-19 conditions. Materials and Methods A pre-post design was used. The procedural data was collected regarding eligibility, reasons for participation decline, dropout, and follow-up rates. Changes in self-efficacy in using energy management strategies, fatigue impact, competency in daily activities, and quality of life were collected three times. Implemented behavior strategies at five months from EME were documented. Results During five months, 17 of 30 eligible participants were included in the study. No dropouts were registered during the intervention period. The follow-up response rate was 70%. The effect size was large in three out of four outcomes post-intervention, with a tendency to increase at follow-up. Conclusions This study demonstrated the feasibility of study procedures and reported promising effect sizes for EME that should be further researched.

Veterans' reasons for dropping out of prolonged exposure therapy across three delivery modalities: A qualitative examination.

Premature dropout from posttraumatic stress disorder treatment (PTSD) hinders treatment response. Studies have primarily used quantitative methodology to identify factors that contribute to Veterans' premature dropout, which has yielded mixed results. Qualitative methods provide rich data and generate additional hypotheses about why Veterans discontinue PTSD treatment. This study aimed to understand Veterans' reasons for dropping out of prolonged exposure therapy (PE) and to examine if there are differences in reasons for dropout between three delivery modalities: in-home, in-person (IHIP), office-based telehealth (OBT), or home-based telehealth (HBT). Twenty-two Veterans who dropped out of PE from a parent randomized clinical trial participated in individual qualitative interviews about potential contextual and individual factors related to discontinuation. Team-based coding was used to conduct open and focused coding. Themes were generated that described factors that influenced Veterans' dropout from PE and constant comparison was used to explore differences in reasons between the three modalities. Most Veterans had multiple reasons for dropping out and reasons were similar across delivery modalities with few differences. Practical barriers (e.g., scheduling difficulties), attitudes toward mental health providers and therapy (e.g., stigma), psychological and physical health factors (e.g., perceived worsening of symptoms, pain), and the therapeutic context (e.g., disliking aspects of PE) contributed to Veterans' decisions to drop out from PE. Veterans in OBT reported more types of practical barriers than Veterans in HBT and IHIP. These findings can help generate hypotheses about interventions that may promote engagement and future studies should continue to study how to reduce dropout. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Race and sex differences in dropout from the STRRIDE trials.

To determine if race and sex differences exist in determinants and timing of dropout among individuals enrolled in an exercise and/or caloric restriction intervention. A total of 947 adults with dyslipidemia (STRRIDE I, STRRIDE AT/RT) or prediabetes (STRRIDE-PD) were randomized to either inactive control or to 1 of 10 exercise interventions, ranging from doses of 8-23 kcal/kg/week, intensities of 50%-75% peak, and durations of 6-8 months. Two groups included resistance training, and one included a dietary intervention (7% weight loss goal). Dropout was defined as an individual withdrawn from the study, with the reasons for dropout aggregated into determinant categories. Timing of dropout was defined as the last session attended and aggregated into phases (i.e., "ramp" period to allow gradual adaptation to exercise prescription). Utilizing descriptive statistics, percentages were generated according to categories of determinants and timing of dropout to describe the proportion of individuals who fell within each category. Black men and women were more likely to be lost to follow-up (Black men: 31.3% and Black women: 19.6%), or dropout due to work responsibilities (15.6% and 12.5%), "change of mind" (12.5% and 8.9%), transportation issues (6.3% and 3.6%), or reported lack of motivation (6.3% and 3.6%). Women in general noted lack of time more often than men as a reason for dropout (White women: 22.4% and Black women: 22.1%). Regardless of race and sex, most participants dropped out during the ramp period of the exercise intervention; with Black women (50%) and White men (37.1%) having the highest dropout rate during this period. These findings emphasize the importance of targeted retention strategies when aiming to address race and sex differences that exist in determinants and timing of dropout among individuals enrolled in an exercise and/or caloric restriction intervention.

A Study of Perception on Students’ Motivation, Burnout and Reasons for Dropout

A Study of Perception on Students’ Motivation, Burnout and Reasons for Dropout

Use of tailoring features and reasons for dropout in a guided internet-based transdiagnostic individually-tailored cognitive behavioral therapy for symptoms of depression and/or anxiety in college students

Transdiagnostic individually-tailored digital interventions reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults with moderate effects. However, research into these approaches for college students is scarce and contradicting. In addition, the exact reasons for intervention dropout in this target group are not well known, and the use of individually-tailored intervention features, such as optional modules, has not yet been explored. The current study aimed to (1) investigate reasons for dropout from a guided internet-based transdiagnostic individually-tailored intervention for college students assessed in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and (2) evaluate whether participants used tailoring features intended for their baseline symptoms. A sample of college students with mild to moderate depression and/or anxiety symptoms (n = 48) in the Netherlands (partially) followed a guided internet-based transdiagnostic individually-tailored intervention. We contacted those who did not complete the entire intervention (n = 29) by phone to report the reasons for intervention dropout. Further, we descriptively explored the use of tailoring features (i.e., depression versus anxiety trajectory) and optional modules of the intervention in the whole sample. We identified a range of person- and intervention-related reasons for intervention dropout, most commonly busy schedules, needs for different kinds of help, or absence of personal contact. Furthermore, only less than half of the participants used the individually-tailoring features to address the symptoms they reported as predominant. In conclusion, digital interventions clear about the content and targeted symptoms, tested in user research could prevent dropout and create reasonable expectations of the intervention. Participants would benefit from additional guidance when using tailoring features of digital interventions, as they often do not choose the tailoring features targeting their baseline symptoms.

An explainable machine learning approach for student dropout prediction

School dropout is a relevant socio-economic problem across the globe. Predictive models have been developed to determine the likelihood of students dropping out of their studies precociously to overcome such a problem. Academic systems, which gather data from many students, are potential sources for datasets that feed dropout prediction algorithms, thus leading to general improvements in education quality. Despite successful past attempts to predict dropout, several works depict small datasets with features that are hard to reproduce. Furthermore, predicting whether a student will drop out is not enough to diagnose and prevent the problem as it is also necessary to provide potential justifications for the dropout. This paper proposes an approach for creating and enriching a dataset for dropout prediction, which has been applied for dropout prediction using data from 19 schools in Brazil. With this dataset and using classifiers and model explaining techniques, our experiments achieved Area Under the Precision–Recall Curve (AUC-PR) scores of up to 89.5%, Precision up to 95%, Recall up to 93%, and Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) rates up to 97% when predicting dropout at different year moments. This study also shows differences when predicting dropouts in different educational stages, such as preschool and secondary education, with the former being more complex than the latter. In addition to the high recognition rates, our proposal identifies potential reasons for student dropout, which are relevant for educational institutions to take preemptive actions.

Dropping Out or Continuing Playing-A Case Study of Adolescent's Motives for Participation in Football.

The purpose of this study was to investigate dropout and continuation motives among boys in youth football. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with all players from a former football team, consisting of 13 young people who were 17 years old when the in-depth interviews were conducted. Short interviews with the same players five years earlier (at the age of 12) were also included as part of the data. This strategy was used to gain a longitudinal perspective and a better insight into the participants' experience of organized football. Including in-depth data from all players at a football team-both players that dropped out and continued playing football, and also including some short interviews data from a longitudinal perspective, this study bring new findings into the discussion about sport participation. When the in-depth interviews were conducted, six of the participants had dropped out of football, while seven were still active. The results show that social factors, ambition, other interests and differences in skill and physical development, were all reasons for dropout from this team. Among those who continued playing football, the social aspect of football, their love for the sport, competitive instinct and the training benefits the sport provided, were reasons they continued playing. Furthermore, the findings showed that those who reported the lowest ambitions at the age of twelve, had dropped out of football, while the one with the highest ambitions had continued playing football. Our findings indicate that ambition can be a crucial factor in relation to participation in football, and also that the social aspect of football is an important motivational factor that coaches and parents should be aware of.

Reasons for High School Dropout: A Descriptive Phenomenological Study Based on Students' Common Experiences

The purpose of this study is to describe the shared experiences of high school students who have left school. The study is based on the qualitative research pattern of "Descriptive Phenomenology". The sample of the study consists of 10 students who left school at the secondary level. "Criteria sampling" which is among purposeful sampling methods was used when determining the sample. The data obtained from semi-structured interviews with students who had left the school were subjected to content analysis, which is a qualitative data analysis method. MAXQDA qualitative data analysis program was used when this analysis was carried out. As a result of the analysis, it is seen that students leave school due to reasons such as low academic achievement, class repetition, absenteeism, poor economic situation, work, reluctance, apathy, negative behaviors, bad peer group, bad social environment, disciplinary referrals, peer bullying, different career orientations and negative role models. In the study, these reasons were classified as low academic motivation, risky behaviors and social disadvantage.

Causes and Prevention of Dropouts of Students in Higher Secondary Schools of Quetta

Education is an essential facet of any country's development, which can have a direct influence on the growth,development, and progress of its citizens. A cause for concern in this study is that education is a key factor in any country'sgrowth &amp; development. The incapability to complete the academic program leads to negative impacts on the students'lives in terms of prospects and overall development. Therefore, it has to be investigated the main dropout reasons in thecountry as well as the implementing strategies to overcome these issues. Regrettably, the dropout rate of students at highersecondary levels is higher, especially in the Quetta City of Pakistan, as most of the students are unable to continue theirhigher studies. So, the current study aimed to examine the causes and prevention plans in terms of teachers' perceptionsat higher secondary levels in Quetta City. The data was collected from 78 teachers from higher secondary schools withthe help of 20 questions using a 5-point Likert scale. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics, includingpercentages and the chi-square method, with the help of the 'Statistical Package of Social Sciences' (SPSS) software.Multiple reasons have been found for dropout at higher secondary levels including lack of community support, socio-economic factors, absence of extra co-curricular activities, family-related issues, a weak relationship between teachers &amp;students, teacher absences, and most importantly the school has no concern regarding these issues. Furthermore, thesehigher secondary schools don't have any prevention plans for that. Although multiple NGOs, UNICEF (ALP), and otherorganizations are working on this issue, there is still no single prevention plan for dropouts. The study also attempted toidentify geographic and societal factors contributing to the high dropout rate and suggest practical solutions.Recommendations; Raising awareness about the issue of school dropouts and prevention strategies is crucial amongparents, teachers, stakeholders, and heads of educational institutions in Quetta's higher secondary schools to decrease thedropout rate and related prevention strategies

Digital therapeutic to improve cancer-related well-being: a pilot randomized controlled trial

ObjectiveThis randomized waitlist controlled pilot study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of Mika, an app-based digital therapeutic intervention hypothesized to improve management and the support of cancer...

Barriers and facilitators to education access for marginalised non-citizen children in Malaysia: A qualitative study.

In Malaysia, marginalised non-citizen children are excluded from formal education at public schools. Recognising education as a fundamental human right, the barriers and facilitators to educational access among refugee and asylum-seeker, migrant, stateless and undocumented children in Malaysia were explored. Qualitative data were collected via 32 in-depth interviews with multiple stakeholders. Data were thematically analysed and organised at three socio-ecological levels. At the 'legislative and policy' level, the requirement of citizenship documents only allows some stateless children to access public schools. Yet, many informal learning centres are not state-endorsed, as they are unable to fulfil licensing criteria. Importantly, denying the right to work for adult refugees and other undocumented people demotivates the pursuit of education among children. At the 'individual and family' level, financial constraints constitute a major reason for school dropouts, especially through expectations on boys to work. Cultural norms partly contribute to the lower enrolment of Rohingya refugee girls in secondary education, but gender parity is maintained for most in primary education. Another factor is proximity to learning centres, which links to safety concerns and transportation costs. Those who accessed public schools reported bullying by local children, which parallels institutional discrimination against marginalised non-citizens. At the 'community and educational institutions' level, inadequate funding for learning centres limits their ability to invest in physical facilities, teachers' salaries and others. Despite difficult operating conditions, learning centres address diverse school readiness, educational backgrounds, and language competencies among students by having sensitised teachers, placement tests and preparatory classes at school entry, and options for vocational training. We propose the gradual inclusion of all children in public schools and the immediate state recognition and support of learning centres. Correspondingly, realising the 'Right to Work' for refugees and stateless peoples will be synergistic in advancing universal education access for all children.

Dropout rates and reasons for dropout among patients receiving clozapine.

The present study aimed to assess the treatment dropout rates, reasons for treatment dropout, and clozapine discontinuation rate among patients attending a tertiary care center in North India. Clozapine data bank was used to identify patients on clozapine, and their treatment records were reviewed for the period Jan 2020-March 2020. Patients who did not follow-up at least once in the last 6 months were considered to have dropped out and were contacted telephonically to understand the reasons for dropout. Treatment records of those following up regularly were reviewed to check if clozapine was discontinued and if so, the reason for the same was evaluated. Out of 671 patients on clozapine, 495 (73.8%) were still on regular follow-up and the remaining 176 (26.2%) had dropped out of treatment. Out of the 176 patients who had dropped out of treatment, 84 could be contacted. Common reasons for dropout were long distance from the hospital (n = 27), long waiting time for consultation (n = 8), no benefit with treatment (n = 17), side effects with medication (n = 10), moving away to another place (n = 6), refusal by the patient to follow-up (n = 7), patient improved and so did not feel the need to continue treatment (n = 7), and other reasons (n = 37). About one-fourth of patients who had started treatment with clozapine dropped out from the treatment. The most common reasons for dropout from treatment included long distance from the hospital and no benefit from treatment.

Characteristics of women attending a phase 3 cardiovascular rehabilitation program: is there a need for a more tailored intervention?

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the main reason for mortality in women, however there are well identified discrepancies between men and women attending cardiovascular rehabilitation (CR) programs. Men are usually more referred and have higher adherence to CR programs than women. Understanding the characteristics of women attending long-term CR programs might be useful to better adapt and motivate future women with CVD to adhere in a higher scale. Purpose To describe characteristics of women with CVD attending a long-term phase III CR program and to compare with men the attendance rates and chosen exercise modality preferences. Methods Patients with CVD in a phase III long-term CR program were screened for the following assessments: 1) cardiorespiratory fitness through cardiopulmonary exercise testing; 2) body mass index (BMI); 3) physical activity (accelerometery); 4) social, demographic variables (questionnaires); 5) attendance rates (sessions attended/sessions planned) and dropout. When admitted, CVD patients chose to attend either the supervised exercise phase III CR sessions in a face-to-face model or an online model, and if they wanted to attend 2x or 3x/week. Chi-square and independent-samples Mann-Whitney U test was used. Results From the 206 CVD patients assessed, 19.9% were women (n=41, mean age 61 ± 11 years, 70.7% coronary artery disease, 53.7% married, 73.2% higher education, 43.9% retired, 39% working full time). From the 41 women screened, 39 enrolled the CR program and 17.9% dropped out before 12 months of program completion (4 women dropped before 6 month of program completion). The main reason of dropout was due to work/CR sessions conciliation. When asked to select the exercise modality, 56.4% chose the 3x/week face-to-face model, 28.2% the 2x/week face-to-face model and 15.4% the online model. When compared to men, women tend to choose the online modality and the 2x/week face-to-face model more than men (x2= 9.298; df=2; p=0.010). Regarding baseline assessments, 63.4% of women completed the assessment for cardiorespiratory fitness (VO²peak=17.11 ± 3.71 ml/kg/min), 80.5% for BMI (29.17 ± 5.58 kg/m²) and 78% for physical activity (38.55 ± 23.88 min/day of moderate to vigorous physical activity). When comparing attendance at 6 months, women have significantly lower attendance rates than men (56.87 ± 2.86% vs 70.24 ± 1.63%, p=0.001). Conclusion The low sample of women, compared to men, in this CR program, their characteristics, types of session modalities chosen, and lower attendance rates suggests that changes in long-term phase III CR programs are needed to tackle this disparity. Individualized and personalized strategies should be created targeting this population according to their needs, motivations and characteristics. A women-tailored phase III long-term CR program, with different session modalities and schedules, might be the future path to undertake.

Student Dropout Prediction for University with High Precision and Recall

Since a high dropout rate for university students is a significant risk to local communities and countries, a dropout prediction model using machine learning is an active research domain to prevent students from dropping out. However, it is challenging to fulfill the needs of consulting institutes and the office of academic affairs. To the consulting institute, the accuracy in the prediction is of the utmost importance; to the offices of academic affairs and other offices, the reason for dropping out is essential. This paper proposes a Student Dropout Prediction (SDP) system, a hybrid model to predict the students who are about to drop out of the university. The model tries to increase the dropout precision and the dropout recall rate in predicting the dropouts. We then analyzed the reason for dropping out by compressing the feature set with PCA and applying K-means clustering to the compressed feature set. The SDP system showed a precision value of 0.963, which is 0.093 higher than the highest-precision model of the existing works. The dropout recall and F1 scores, 0.766 and 0.808, respectively, were also better than those of gradient boosting by 0.117 and 0.011, making them the highest among the existing works; Then, we classified the reasons for dropping out into four categories: “Employed”, “Did Not Register”, “Personal Issue”, and “Admitted to Other University.” The dropout precision of “Admitted to Other University” was the highest, at 0.672. In post-verification, the SDP system increased counseling efficiency by accurately predicting dropouts with high dropout precision in the “High-Risk” group while including more dropouts in total dropouts. In addition, by predicting the reasons for dropouts and presenting guidelines to each department, the students could receive personalized counseling.

Investigating behavioral patterns of procrastinators in a Wiki-based activity.

Procrastination is one of the issues affecting more than half of the student population and is known to impact them negatively. It is also one of the major reasons for failure and dropout. Therefore, several studies have been conducted in this domain to understand when and why students procrastinate. The existing studies use self-reported procrastination scales and/or digital traces of student interactions recorded in learning environments to identify procrastination behavior. The majority of the extant studies leverage individual tasks such as assignments submission, quizzes attempted, course materials assessed by a student, etc., to study such behavior. This paper uses group-based collaborative wiki activity to explore the procrastination behavior among the students. This study will help us explore student behavior in a group activity. The results would help us investigate if the student's behavior changes when it comes to a group activity. The results would be beneficial for instructors, practitioners, and educational researchers to know if group activity could be utilized to overcome procrastination behavior.

Factors Associated with Dropout from Community Mental Health Clinic in Chandigarh during COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Dropout of patients with mental illness is high. There is inadequate research on dropout of patient with mental illness from community mental health clinics. Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the dropout rate from three community mental health clinics and evaluate factors associated with dropout in relation to the patient, caregivers, community clinics, and COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Patients aged 18 years and above registered in community outreach clinics (COC) from March 24, 2018, to March 23, 2020, i.e., before the lockdown, for treatment of mental illnesses including substance use disorders (SUDs) were included in the study. Responses on factors associated with dropout were collected on predesigned questionnaire telephonically after resumption of regular clinics. Results: A total of 5450 patients were registered at COCs. Neurotic and anxiety disorders, SUDs, and bipolar affective disorders were the common diagnoses. The dropout rate was 21%. Sixteen percent of patients did not perceive the need to continue treatment against 84% who felt the need for treatment. However, 87% already felt improvement with treatment. Thirty percent of patients were concerned about side effects of medicine and 52% expressed difficulty to purchase medicines from market, in case of nonavailability of free medicines. Forty-nine percent of patients reported fear of contracting COVID-19 infection as the reason for dropout postlockdown. Conclusion: Fear of contracting COVID-19, compulsory testing, and quarantine was the reasons for dropout attributable to the pandemic. Patients-related and medication-related factors were other major reasons for dropout.