Lost to follow-up for appointments in a dedicated dry eye clinic

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographics of the study population

	Total		Lost to follow up		Still attending clinic		P-value
	N	%	N	%	N	%
Total	505	100	240	47.5	265	52.5
Sex							0.00018*
Male	128	25.4	79	32.9	49	18.5
Female	377	74.8	161	67.1	216	81.5
Ethnicity							0.00012*
Chinese	444	88.1	197	82.1	247	93.2
Non-Chinese	61	12.1	43	17.9	18	6.8
Age group							<0.00001*
<30	38	7.5	34	14.2	4	1.5
30–39	54	10.7	37	15.4	17	6.4
40–49	86	17.1	51	21.3	35	13.2
50–59	148	29.4	50	20.8	98	37.0
≥60	179	35.5	69	28.8	110	41.5

Note:

* P<0.05

Abbreviation: N, number.

Table 2 Demographics of respondents of the telephone surveys compared to the nonrespondents

	Total		Respondents		Nonrespondents		P-value
	N	%	N	%	N	%
Total	240	100	187	77.8	53	22.2
Sex							0.138
Male	79	33.1	57	30.5	22	41.5
Female	161	67.4	130	69.5	31	58.5
Ethnicity							0.002*
Chinese	197	82.4	161	86.1	36	67.9
Non-Chinese	43	18.0	26	13.9	17	32.1
Age group							0.652
<30	34	14.2	24	12.8	10	18.9
30–39	37	15.5	27	14.4	10	18.9
40–49	50	20.9	41	21.9	9	17.0
50–59	50	20.9	41	21.9	9	17.0
≥60	69	28.9	54	28.9	15	28.3

Note:

* P<0.05

Abbreviation: N, number.

Figure 1 Pie charts showing the major groupings of reasons for not attending further sessions in the dry eye clinic for (A) all respondents and (B) those respondents who attended only once before they became LTF.

Abbreviations: LTF, lost to follow-up; N, number.

Table 3 Reasons for not attending the dry eye clinic

	N	Stabilized medical condition		Personal/social		Healthcare service delivery		P-value
		n	%	n	%	n	%
Total	185	87	47.0	47	25.4	51	27.6
Sex								0.83
Male	57	27	47.4	13	22.8	17	29.8
Female	128	60	46.9	34	26.6	34	26.6
Age								0.00002*
<50	90	58	64.4	16	17.8	16	17.8
≥50	95	29	30.5	31	32.6	35	36.8
Ethnicity								0.41
Chinese	159	75	47.2	38	23.9	46	28.9
Non-Chinese	26	12	46.2	9	34.6	5	19.2

Note:

* P<0.05

Abbreviations: n, number; N, total number of patients.

Figure 2 The proportion of patients stating certain reasons for not attending further sessions for all respondents of the telephone survey (A, D, G), respondents who attended only once (B, E, H) before becoming LTF, and respondents who attended more than one (C, F, I) clinic visit before becoming LTF.

Notes: The blue pie charts show the specific reasons related to the medical condition. The red pie charts show personal/social reasons. The green pie charts show reasons related to the health service delivery.
Abbreviations: LTF, lost to follow-up; N, number; SNEC, Singapore National Eye Center.

Figure S1 Flow chart showing the study process with the number of participants.

Figure S2 Bar charts showing number of visits those patients had consulted the dry eye service clinic before loss to follow-up.

Notes: (A) The respondents who had been contacted by the telephone survey (n=187). (B) Those patients who could not be contacted (n=53).

Table S1 Patients attending the dry eye clinic with systemic disease

	Total		LTF		Still attending clinic		P-value
	N	%	N	%	N	%
Total patients	505	100	240	47.5	265	52.5
Patients with systemic disease*	92	18.3	43	18.0	49	18.5	0.885
Diabetes mellitus	30	6.0	20	8.4	10	3.8	0.029†
Rheumatoid arthritis	25	5.0	12	5.0	13	4.9	0.95
Thyroid disease	41	8.1	14	5.9	27	10.2	0.076
Sjogren syndrome	7	1.4	2	0.8	5	1.9	0.314

Notes:

* Totals do not add up for each category, as patients may have more than one systemic disease

† P<0.05.

Abbreviations: LTF, lost to follow-up; N, number.