Non-response bias in a study of cardiovascular diseases, functional status and self-rated health among elderly men - United Kingdom

Age and Ageing, Jan, 1998 by Nancy Hoeymans, Edith J.M. Feskens, Geertrudis A.M. van den Bos, Daan Kromhout

Acknowledgements

The Zutphen Elderly Study was financially supported by the Netherlands Prevention Foundation, the Hague and the National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, MD, USA. The authors would like to thank the fieldwork team in Zutphen, especially E. B. Bosschieter and A. H. Thomassen-Gijsbers.

Key points

* Drop-outs from the Zutphen Elderly Study are less healthy than those who remain in the study.

* Due to this selective drop-out, the associations of myocardial infarction and stroke with functional status and self-rated health are biased.

* The direction and magnitude of this bias varies with type of disease and health outcome.

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