Journal article

Factors Associated with Participation and Attrition in a Longitudinal Study of Bacterial Vaginosis in Australian Women Who Have Sex with Women

Dana S Forcey, Sandra M Walker, Lenka A Vodstrcil, Christopher K Fairley, Jade E Bilardi, Matthew Law, Jane S Hocking, Katherine A Fethers, Susan Petersen, Clare Bellhouse, Marcus Y Chen, Catriona S Bradshaw

PLOS ONE | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2014

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: A number of social and sexual risk factors for bacterial vaginosis (BV) have been described. It is important to understand whether these factors are associated with non-participation or attrition of participants from longitudinal studies in order to examine potential for recruitment or attrition bias. We describe factors associated with participation and attrition in a 24-month prospective cohort study, investigating incident BV among Australian women who have sex with women. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Participants negative for prevalent BV were offered enrolment in a longitudinal cohort study. Participants self-collected vaginal samples and completed questionnaires 3-monthly to en..

View full abstract

Grants

Awarded by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council


Awarded by Early Careers Fellowship


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (program grant APP57431) and Early Careers Fellowship grant ERC1013135 to J.E.B. This work is also supported by a 2007 Lesbian Health Research Grant from the Australian Lesbian Medical Association and the AIDS Council of New South Wales. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.