- Author
-
D.A. Reinwand
R. Crutzen
I. Elfeddali
F. Schneider
D.N. Schulz
E.S. Smit
N.E. Stanczyk
H. Tange
V. Voncken-Brewster
M.J.L. Walthouwer
C. Hoving
H. de Vries - Date
- 10-2015
- Title
- Impact of educational level on study attrition and evaluation of web-based computer-tailored interventions: results from seven randomized controlled trials
- Journal
- Journal of Medical Internet Research
- Volume | Issue number
- 17 | 10
- Article number
- e228
- Number of pages
- 16
- Document type
- Article
- Faculty
- Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG)
- Institute
- Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)
- Abstract
-
Background: Web-based computer-tailored interventions have shown to be effective in improving health behavior; however, high dropout attrition is a major issue in these interventions.
Objective: The aim of this study is to assess whether people with a lower educational level drop out from studies more frequently compared to people with a higher educational level and to what extent this depends on evaluation of these interventions.
Methods: Data from 7 randomized controlled trials of Web-based computer-tailored interventions were used to investigate dropout rates among participants with different educational levels. To be able to compare higher and lower educated participants, intervention evaluation was assessed by pooling data from these studies. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess whether intervention evaluation predicted dropout at follow-up measurements.
Results: In 3 studies, we found a higher study dropout attrition rate among participants with a lower educational level, whereas in 2 studies we found that middle educated participants had a higher dropout attrition rate compared to highly educated participants. In 4 studies, no such significant difference was found. Three of 7 studies showed that participants with a lower or middle educational level evaluated the interventions significantly better than highly educated participants ("Alcohol-Everything within the Limit": F2,376=5.97, P=.003; "My Healthy Behavior": F2,359=5.52, P=.004; "Master Your Breath": F2,317=3.17, P=.04). One study found lower intervention evaluation by lower educated participants compared to participants with a middle educational level ("Weight in Balance": F2,37=3.17, P=.05). Low evaluation of the interventions was not a significant predictor of dropout at a later follow-up measurement in any of the studies.
Conclusions: Dropout attrition rates were higher among participants with a lower or middle educational level compared with highly educated participants. Although lower educated participants evaluated the interventions better in approximately half of the studies, evaluation did not predict dropout attrition. Further research is needed to find other explanations for high dropout rates among lower educated participants. - URL
- go to publisher's site
- Language
- English
- Persistent Identifier
- https://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.496534
- Downloads
-
Impact of Educational Level on Study Attrition(Final published version)
Disclaimer/Complaints regulations
If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library, or send a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.