The greatest CHF-related care costs incurred by health systems are derived from frequent hospital admissions due to episodes of decompensation. While previous investigators have reduced the frequency of CHF re-admissions using programs based on home nurse visits, the intervention costs associated with such programs have been high. However, no rigorously designed trials of home telecare have been conducted. This presentation will review the development and design of the UCD CHF Home Care Study.
Attrition is likely to occur in any longitudinal sample.
It is unlikely that the people who drop out of the sample are random. There is likely to be a pattern. For example, older people are more likely to die than younger people and once they do we will not hear from them again. If one of the goals of the longitudinal study is to forecast what would occur to a similar group of patients based on characteristics at base-line, then attrition needs to be accounted for. An econometric technique, Instrumental Variables, does that.