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Prev Sci (2016) 17:806818 DOI 10.1007/s11121-015-0610-7
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11121-015-0610-7&domain=pdf
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Web End = Planning for Long-Term Follow-Up: Strategies Learned from Longitudinal Studies
Karl G. Hill1 & Danielle Woodward1 & Tiffany Woelfel1 &
J. David Hawkins1 & Sara Green1
Published online: 9 October 2015# Society for Prevention Research 2015
Abstract Preventive interventions are often designed and tested with the immediate program period in mind, and little thought that the intervention sample might be followed up for years or even decades beyond the initial trial. However, depending on the type of intervention and the nature of the outcomes, long-term follow-up may well be appropriate. The advantages of long-term follow-up of preventive interventions are discussed and include the capacity to examine program effects across multiple later life outcomes, the ability to examine the etiological processes involved in the development of the outcomes of interest, and the ability to provide more concrete estimates of the relative benefits and costs of an intervention. In addition, researchers have identified potential methodological risks of long-term follow-up such as inflation of type 1 error through post hoc selection of outcomes, selection bias, and problems stemming from attrition over time. The present paper presents a set of seven recommendations for the design or evaluation of studies for potential long-term follow-up organized under four areas: Intervention Logic Model, Developmental Theory and Measurement Issues; Design for Retention; Dealing with Missing Data; and Unique Considerations for Intervention Studies. These recommendations include conceptual considerations in the design of a study, pragmatic concerns in the design and imple-
mentation of the data collection for long-term follow-up, as well as criteria to be considered for the evaluation of an existing intervention for potential for long-term follow-up. Concrete examples from existing intervention studies that have been followed up over the long term are provided.
Keywords Intervention . Assessment design . Longitudinal . Follow-up . Retention . Developmental
Experiments are usually designed to investigate only immediate or short-term causal effects, and, to date, it is rare to find studies where participants are followed up for much more than 1 year after an experiment (Farrington 2006). However, with long-term intervention follow-up, one may be able to model within-person intervention effects such as cumulative outcomes (e.g., weight status or telomere length), stability and...