How did regional lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic affect recruitment into a large multinational cohort study of intrauterine device users?

doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2023.110003

Contraception

Volume 123, July 2023, 110003

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2023.110003 Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate the impact of lockdown policies on the recruitment of an ongoing cohort study.

Study design

We performed descriptive analyses of recruitment, dropout, and baseline characteristics over time. Oxford Stringency Index was used to assess the impact of regional constraints on recruitment.

Results

Drop in recruitment clearly reflected the Stringency Index within the first months of the pandemic. Unexpectedly, drop-out rates declined in 2020/2021. Baseline characteristics were comparable, yet younger women were recruited more frequently during the pandemic.

Conclusions

There was no strong evidence of recruitment bias due to the pandemic.

Implications

The COVID-19 pandemic is a potential source of bias for ongoing studies and its influence on the study conduct (e.g., recruitment, drop-out) should be thoroughly evaluated to ensure that study results are not biased in this regard. The Oxford's Government Stringency Index can be used to identify pandemic-affected time periods.

Keywords

COVID-19

Europe

Intrauterine devices

IUD

Recruitment

Stringency Index

Abbreviations

IUD

Intrauterine Device

EURAS-LCS12

European Active Surveillance Study on LCS12

HCP

Health care professional

COVID

Coronavirus disease

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^☆: Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.

^☆☆: Funding: The EURAS-LCS12 study was funded by an unconditional grant from Bayer AG (Germany). An independent international Advisory Council was responsible for all scientific matters. The funder had no access to the source data and did not participate in analyzing the data or preparing this publication.

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