TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dornquast, Christina
A1  - Reinhold, Thomas
A1  - Solak, Saliha
A1  - Durak, Melike
A1  - Becher, Heiko
A1  - Riens, Burgi
A1  - Icke, Katja
A1  - Danquah, Ina
A1  - Willich, Stefan N.
A1  - Keil, Thomas
A1  - Krist, Lilian
T1  - Strategies to Enhance Retention in a Cohort Study Among Adults of Turkish Descent Living in Berlin
JF  - Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
N2  - Retention is important for statistical power and external validity in long-term cohort studies. The aims of our study were to evaluate different retention strategies within a cohort study of adults of Turkish descent in Berlin, Germany, and to compare participants and non-participants. In 2011–2012, a population-based study was conducted among adults of Turkish descent to primarily examine recruitment strategies. 6 years later, the participants were re-contacted and invited to complete a self-report questionnaire regarding their health status, health care utilization, and satisfaction with medical services. The retention strategy comprised letters in both German and Turkish, phone calls, and home visits (by bilingual staff). We calculated the response rate and retention rate, using definitions of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, as well as the relative retention rate for each level of contact. Associations of baseline recruitment strategy, sociodemographic, migration-related and health-related factors with retention were investigated by logistic regression analysis. Of 557 persons contacted, 249 (44.7%) completed the questionnaire. This was 50.1% of those whose contact information was available. The relative retention rate was lowest for phone calls (8.9%) and highest for home visits (18.4%). Participants were more often non-smokers and German citizens than non-participants. For all remaining factors, no association with retention was found. In this study, among adults of Turkish descent, the retention rate increased considerably with every additional level of contact. Implementation of comprehensive retention strategies provided by culturally matched study personnel may lead to higher validity and statistical power in studies on migrant health issues.
KW  - retention strategies
KW  - cohort studies
KW  - migrants
KW  - participation
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-344776
VL  - 24
IS  - 5
ER  -