International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 26, 1055-1062, Copyright © 1997 by International Epidemiological Association
F Boersma, JA Eefsting, W van den Brink and W van Tilburg
BACKGROUND: Differential distributions of sociodemographic characteristics
and cognitive impairment in responders and non- responders may result in a
biased prevalence estimate of dementia based on responders only. METHODS:
Responders (n = 2191) to a cross- sectional, two-stage community study were
compared with regard to sociodemographic characteristics and cognition with
three subgroups of non-responders: (A) subjects who refused to participate
(n = 369), (B) subjects who were too ill or who had died prior to the
screening (n = 72) and (C) subjects who had moved out of the study region
or were not traceable (n = 23). Prevalence estimates specific for age and
housing situation in responders and physicians' ratings of cognitive
impairment were used to estimate the prevalence of dementia among
non-responders. RESULTS: Group A differed from responders in age and
housing situation, group B in age, housing and cognition, and group C only
in age. Separate prevalence estimates of dementia based on age, housing and
cognition yielded figures for group A between 4.9% and 7.2%, for group B
between 13.1% and 19.1%, and for group C between 2.6% and 4.2%. Joined with
the prevalence rate among responders (6.5%) the best possible point
estimate of the prevalence of dementia in the target population lies
between 6.4% and 6.9%, i.e. within the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the
prevalence among responders (5.4-7.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Although in this study
non-response had no important influence on the overall prevalence, the
findings among the distinct non-response subgroups point to the importance
of describing non- response sociodemographically as well as in terms of the
study objective. The authors recommend that non-responders are categorized
into distinct groups based on the reason for non-response.
ARTICLES
Characteristics of non-responders and the impact of non-response on prevalence estimates of dementia
Nursing Home Anna Schotanus, Heerenveen, The Netherlands.
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