Why do participants drop-out: findings from a prospective pediatric cohort for fever surveillance established at Vellore, southern India

Table 1 Characteristics of the population in the four settlements of the study area [N = 42, 177 (10, 102 households)]

		Total		CAP		KASPA		RNP		VSPM		p-value
		n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	p-value
Total population^#		42,177		11,899	28.2	12,788	30.3	10,339	24.5	7151	17	–
Population aged < 15 years^#		10,149	24.1	2999	29.5	2863	28.2	2622	25.8	1665	16.4	–
Age distribution of children	< 5 years	3051	30.1	965	32.2	840	29.3	759	28.9	487	29.2	0.041
	5–10 years	3574	35.2	1053	35.1	1016	35.5	938	35.8	567	34.1
	10–15 years	3524	34.7	981	32.7	1007	35.2	925	35.3	611	36.7
Number of families^#		10,102		2889	28.6	3117	30.9	2338	23.1	1758	17.4	–
Type of family	Nuclear	7254	71.8	2184	75.6	2181	70	1618	69.2	1271	72.3	< 0.0001
Type of family	Joint/extended	2848	28.2	705	24.4	936	30	720	30.8	487	27.7	< 0.0001
Religion	Hindu	4981	49.3	1554	53.8	1782	57.2	234	10	1411	80.3	< 0.0001
	Muslim	4612	45.6	1281	44.3	1037	33.3	2071	88.6	223	12.7
	Christian	503	5	52	1.8	297	9.5	31	1.3	123	7
	Others	6	0.1	2	0.1	1	0	2	0.1	1	0
Socio-economic status	Low	2975	29.4	930	32.2	784	25.2	678	29	583	33.2	< 0.0001
	Middle	5689	56.3	1558	54	1865	59.8	1272	54.4	994	56.5
	High	1438	14.3	401	13.8	468	15	388	16.6	181	10.3
Education (highest in household)	No education	575	5.7	201	7	141	4.5	122	5.2	111	6.3	< 0.0001
	Class 1 to 5	555	5.5	198	6.9	127	4.1	156	6.7	74	4.2
	Class 6 to 8	1429	14.1	488	16.8	324	10.4	400	17.1	217	12.3
	High school	2626	26	809	28	778	25	573	24.5	466	26.5
	Higher secondary	1886	18.7	520	18	599	19.2	446	19.1	321	18.3
	Degree	3031	30	673	23.3	1148	36.8	641	27.4	569	32.4
Mother’s education	No education	4783	47.3	1405	48.6	1388	44.5	1113	47.6	877	49.9	< 0.0001
	Class 1 to 5	1260	12.5	394	13.6	314	10.1	406	17.4	146	8.3
	Class 6 to 8	1590	15.7	460	16	510	16.4	377	16.1	243	13.8
	High school	1427	14.1	387	13.4	519	16.6	239	10.2	282	16
	Higher secondary	581	5.8	144	5	214	6.9	123	5.3	100	5.7
	Degree	461	4.6	99	3.4	172	5.5	80	3.4	110	6.3

CAP: Chinnallapuram; KASPA: Kaspa; RNP: Ramnaickanpalayam, VSPM: Vasanthapuram
^# Row percentage
^* Socio-economic status was classified as low, middle and high using the modified Kuppusamy scale that included education, occupation and selected assets [19]

ISSN: 1471-2288