Few losses to follow-up in a sub-Saharan African cancer cohort via active mHealth follow-up: the prospective ABC-DO breast cancer cohort

A new article by researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and partners, as part of the African Breast Cancer-Disparities in Outcomes (ABC-DO) prospective breast cancer cohort study, reports the impact on losses to follow-up of active follow-up of patients using mobile-Health (mHealth) solutions in the form of mobile phones.

In the ABC-DO cohort, women or their next of kin were contacted via mobile phone every 3 months for updates on the women’s vital status. Almost 1500 women were regularly contacted in this manner, and only 71 were lost to follow-up after 3 years.

Although the study was not a randomized controlled trial, in this cancer cohort with active mobile phone follow-up, losses to follow-up were much lower than in previous studies and enabled estimation of up-to-date and reliable cancer survival.

Foerster M, Anele A, Adisa C, Galukande M, Parham G, Zietsman A, et al.
Few losses to follow-up in a sub-Saharan African cancer cohort via active mHealth follow-up: the prospective ABC-DO breast cancer cohort
Am J Epidemiol, Published online 8 May 2020;
https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa070

Read the article