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

Table 2 Comparison of baseline characteristics of participants who dropped out with participants who continued participation in the study (N = 5639)

		Participants who dropped out (n = 404)		Participants who continued in the study (n = 5235)		p-value^†
		n	%	n	%	p-value^†
Religion	Hindu	166	41.1	2518	48.1	0.016
	Muslim	212	52.5	2485	47.5	0.211
	Christian	26	6.4	232	4.4	ref
Socio-economic status*	Low	249	61.6	3520	67.2	< 0.0001
	Middle	130	32.2	1556	29.7	0.006
	High	25	6.2	159	3	ref
Mother’s education	Below class 5	199	49.3	2740	52.3	0.094
	Class 6 to 10	154	38.1	1961	37.5	0.246
	Class 11 & above	51	12.6	534	10.2	ref
Type of family	Nuclear	196	48.5	3208	61.3	ref
Type of family	Joint/extended family	208	51.5	2027	38.7	< 0.0001
Age at drop-out	1 to 5 years	106	26.2	1579	30.2	ref
	5 to 10 years	168	41.6	2152	41.1	0.239
	10 to 15 years	130	32.2	1504	28.7	0.062
Area-wise drop-out rate^#	CAP	85	5.7	1414	94.3	ref
	KASPA	121	6.7	1685	93.3	0.223
	RNP	123	8.4	1337	91.6	0.003
	VSPM	75	8.6	799	91.4	0.006

^†Chi-square test was used as test of significance between the two proportions
^# 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