Selectivity of Attrition in Longitudinal Studies of Cognitive Functioning
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OBJECTIVES: Identify characteristics distinguishing people who do and do not continue to participate in a longitudinal study and determine whether the longitudinal changes for people who continue are representative of the changes that would have occurred had longitudinal data been available from all of the initial participants. METHOD: Moderately large samples of returning (N = 2,082) and nonreturning (N = 1,698) participants across a wide age range (i.e., 18-97 years of age) performed a battery of cognitive tests and completed personality and mood questionnaires. Differences between the groups were examined with multiple regression analyses with age, returner status, and their interaction as predictors. RESULTS: Compared with participants who did not return, returning participants at the initial occasion had higher levels of each cognitive ability and of certain personality characteristics (e.g., agreeableness and openness), but many of the differences were only apparent among adults older than 50 years of age. Importantly, there was no evidence that the longitudinal change for nonreturning participants would have been different from that among the participants who did return. DISCUSSION: The phenomenon of selective attrition is more complex than often assumed, and it may not necessarily limit the generalizability of longitudinal comparisons.
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Selective attrition of cognitively impaired participants could underestimate the rate of cognitive decline or not.
“Selective attrition of cognitively impaired participants could underestimate the rate of cognitive decline57 or not.58”
From Sex differences in cognitive decline among US adults (2021) · cites this paper as [58]
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- Authors
- Salthouse, T. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Virginia (US)
- Corresponding author
- Salthouse, T. A.
- Venue
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-06-02
- Volume
- 69
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 567-574
- ISSN
- 1079-5014 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-5368
- PMC
- PMC4049149
- OpenAlex
- W2111142662
- Cited by
- 104
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 23.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- Locations
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R37AG024270)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Keywords
- selective attrition, participant retention, longitudinal study, cognitive function, cognitive aging, personality traits, agreeableness, openness to experience, generalizability, older adults, age differences
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cognition, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Middle Aged, Patient Dropouts, Personality, Research Design, Young Adult
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