TY - JOUR T1 - Loss to five-year follow-up in the Telemark study JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2019.PA4451 VL - 54 IS - suppl 63 SP - PA4451 AU - Nikola Zivadinovic AU - Regine Abrahamsen AU - Martin Veel Svendsen AU - Anne Kristin M. Fell AU - Johny Kongerud AU - Paul Henneberger Y1 - 2019/09/28 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/54/suppl_63/PA4451.abstract N2 - Objectives: Studies have shown that declining participation in epidemiological studies may lead to biased estimates of occurrence and selection bias. Nevertheless, studies on non-participation and loss to follow-up in prospective studies are rare.Aim: The aim of the study was to characterize those lost to follow-up and possible factors associated with non-participation in a prospective population based study of respiratory health in Norway.Methods: A five-year follow-up of the population based sample (n=16 099), aged 21-55 years, from the Telemark study was conducted in 2018. Risk factors associated with loss to follow-up were assessed by forward conditional logistic regression.Results: A total of 8 244 (51.2%) participants were lost to follow-up. Non-participation was associated with male sex, younger age, low education, current smoking, unemployment, reduced workability, asthma, being woken by chest tightness and COPD.View this table:Conclusion: The risk factors for participants lost to five-year follow-up are comparable to those reported in population-based studies for non-responders, mainly related to younger age, male gender, current smoking, low socioeconomic status, and higher symptom prevalence and morbidity.FootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2019; 54: Suppl. 63, PA4451.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only). ER -