Loss to follow-up in a population-wide brief contact intervention to prevent suicide attempts - The VigilanS program, France1 INSERM, MOODS Research unit "Depression, Anxiety, Psychotraumatism and Suicide", Centre de recherche en Epidémiologie et santé des populations (CESP), Université Paris-Saclay, Hôpital Paul-Brousse, Villejuif, France.
2 INSERM, Sorbonne University, Institut Pierre Louis d'Épidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Social Epidemiology Team, Paris, France.
3 Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Lille, Lille, France.
4 Univ. Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, U1172-LilNCog (JPARC)-Lille Neurosciences & Cognition, Lille, France.
5 Centre National de Ressources et Résilience Pour Les Psychotraumas (Cn2r Lille Paris), Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Lille, Lille, France.
Published: March 1, 2022 PLoS One . 2022 Mar 1;17(3):e0263379. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263379. eCollection 2022.
Abstract
Background
Brief Contact Interventions (BCIs) after a suicide attempt (SA) are an important element of prevention against SA and suicide. VigilanS generalizes to a whole French region a BCI combining resource cards, telephone calls and sending postcards, according to a predefined algorithm. However, a major obstacle to such real-life intervention is the loss of contact during follow-up. Here, we analyze the occurrence of loss of follow-up (LFU) and compare characteristics of patients LFU with follow-up completers.
Methods
The study concerned patients included in VigilanS over the period from 1st January 2015 to 31 December 2018, with an end of follow-up on 1st July 2019. We performed a series of descriptive analysis and logistic regressions. The outcome was the loss to follow-up, relative to the 6th month call marking the end of the follow-up; the predictive variables were the characteristics of the patient at entry and during follow-up. Age and sex were considered as adjustment variables.
Results
11879 inclusions occurred during the study period, corresponding to 10666 different patients. The mean age was 40.6 ± 15 years. More than a third were non-first suicide attempters (46.6%) and the most frequent means of suicide was by voluntary drug intoxication (83.2%). 8335 patients were LFU. After simple and multiple regression, a significant relationship with loss to follow-up was identified among non-first suicide attempters, alcohol consumers, patients having no companion on arrival at the emergency room, patients who didn’t make or receive any calls. An increased stay in hospital after a SA was a protective factor against loss of follow-up.
Conclusion
A majority of patients were lost to follow-up by the expected surveillance time of 6 months. Characteristics of lost patients will help focusing efforts to improve retention in the VigilanS program and might give insights for BCI implemented elsewhere.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263379
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Source
Deux nouvelles publications de l'équipe @MOODS_Inserm sur le dispositif de veille sanitaire VigilanS pour la prévention du suicide. #Prévention #Suicides
— MOODS (@MOODS_Inserm) April 6, 2022
