{"doi":"10.1177/1049909121994309","title":"Interim Analysis of Attrition Rates in Palliative Care Study on Dignity Therapy","abstract":"A routine threat to palliative care research is participants not completing studies. The purpose of this analysis was to quantify attrition rates mid-way through a palliative care study on Dignity Therapy and describe the reasons cited for attrition. Enrolled in the study were a total of 365 outpatients with cancer who were receiving outpatient specialty palliative care (mean age 66.7 ± 7.3 years, 56% female, 72% White, 22% Black, 6% other race/ethnicity). These participants completed an initial screening for cognitive status, performance status, physical distress, and spiritual distress. There were 76 eligible participants who did not complete the study (58% female, mean age 67.9 ± 7.3 years, 76% White, 17% Black, and 7% other race). Of those not completing the study, the average scores were 74.5 ± 11.7 on the Palliative Performance Scale and 28.3 ± 1.5 on the Mini-Mental Status Examination, whereas 22% had high spiritual distress scores and 45% had high physical distress scores. The most common reason for attrition was death/decline of health (47%), followed by patient withdrawal from the study (21%), and patient lost to follow-up (21%). The overall attrition rate was 24% and within the a priori projected attrition rate of 20%-30%. Considering the current historical context, this interim analysis is important because it will serve as baseline data on attrition prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research will compare these results with attrition throughout the rest of the study, allowing analysis of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the study attrition.","journal":"American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine®","year":2021,"id":199766,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8914,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":776350,"name":"Tasha M. Schoppee","orcid":"0000-0003-4502-691X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776798,"name":"Amelia Greenlee","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776799,"name":"Destiny Gordon","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776800,"name":"Stacey Jean","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776801,"name":"Valandrea Smith","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776802,"name":"Tyra Reed","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776351,"name":"Sheri Kittelson","orcid":"0000-0003-1271-0184","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776352,"name":"Tammie E. Quest","orcid":"0000-0002-9448-4688","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":516072,"name":"Sean O’Mahony","orcid":"0000-0003-0809-5238","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776803,"name":"Josh Hauser","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":311443,"name":"Marvin Omar Delgado-Guay","orcid":"0000-0002-6431-2658","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776353,"name":"Michael W. Rabow","orcid":"0000-0002-0095-8951","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":343754,"name":"Linda L. Emanuel","orcid":"0000-0003-4371-1999","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":665409,"name":"George Fitchett","orcid":"0000-0002-5054-8459","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":665408,"name":"George Handzo","orcid":"0000-0001-6683-7303","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":665407,"name":"Harvey Max Chochinov","orcid":"0000-0003-2656-4704","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":524051,"name":"Yingwei Yao","orcid":"0000-0001-5389-2717","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":445397,"name":"Diana J. Wilkie","orcid":"0000-0002-3954-8933","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":776797,"name":"Virginia Samuels","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":22,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:40.558460Z","pmid":"33557587","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}