ERIC Number: ED610408
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Jul
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Assessing Attrition Bias
What Works Clearinghouse
Attrition occurs when members of the initial research sample are not part of the final analysis sample, such as due to missing data or leaving the study. Both the overall sample attrition and the differences in attrition between the groups can affect the statistical equivalence of the sample and create potential for bias. The WWC has given careful thought to the ways in which attrition in randomized controlled trials can cause treatment and control groups to be dissimilar and possibly affect study findings. The WWC has determined how much attrition is "too much" by using a researcher-developed model that considers the effects of both overall and differential attrition. This attrition white paper (version 2.1) describes the model of attrition bias that informs the current WWC standard against which studies are assessed. It describes the working assumptions about the correlation between response and outcomes and examines whether the model parameters are generally consistent with data from three randomized trials. The attrition white paper addendum (version 3.0) provides additional empirical information and sensitivity analyses that support the use of the existing attrition bounds articulated in the white paper. [For "Assessing Attrition Bias -- Addendum" (version 3.0), see ED610409.]
Descriptors: Attrition (Research Studies), Statistical Bias, Randomized Controlled Trials, Models, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Correlation, Educational Research, Responses
What Works Clearinghouse. 550 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20024; e-mail: contact.WWC@ed.gov; Web site: https://whatworks.ed.gov/
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: What Works Clearinghouse (ED)
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
IES Publication: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Document/243
Author Affiliations: N/A