Compliance in ambulatory assessment studies: investigating study and sample characteristics as predictors
Open accessAbstract
Ambulatory assessment (AA) studies are becoming more and more popular. However, it can be challenging to motivate participants to comply with study protocols. The aim of the present study was to investigate possible predictors of compliance in AA studies with diverse samples and study designs. To do so, we extracted compliance information, study characteristics, and sample characteristics from 488 previously published studies. The average compliance across the studies was rather high. The total number of measurement occasions and the number of study days were negatively related to the compliance rate. Moreover, a higher percentage of healthy controls in clinical studies was associated with a higher compliance rate. By contrast, other study characteristics (e.g., the amount of financial compensation) and sample characteristics (clinical vs. healthy sample) were not related to compliance. The findings have implications for the design of future AA studies.
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Monetary incentives are reported as relatively unimpactful in increasing compliance, based on a review of 481 EMA studies.
“However, monetary incentives are reported as relatively unimpactful in increasing compliance, based on a review of 481 EMA studies (111).”
From Don't Miss the Moment: A Systematic Review of Ecological Momentary Assessment in Suicide Research (2022) · cites this paper as [111]
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- Authors
- Ottenstein, C., & Werner, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Koblenz and Landau (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Ottenstein, Charlotte
- Venue
- Assessment
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2021-07-20
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1765-1776
- ISSN
- 1073-1911 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3489
- PMC
- PMC9597150
- OpenAlex
- W3183980449
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 7.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Assessment (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Medication Adherence and Compliance
- Keywords
- ambulatory assessment, compliance, participant motivation, predictors of compliance, study characteristics, sample characteristics, financial compensation, research design
- MeSH terms
- Ecological Momentary Assessment, Humans, Patient Compliance, Research Design
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