I've just had a look into the differences between the groups who started time point one and went on to finish time point six, and there were some interesting results:

• Women were more likely to go on to complete the final survey than men
• Older participants were more likely to continue (the average age went from 30 years old to 34 years old)
• People who were single, or living separately from their partner were less likely to finish time point six than people with other relationship statuses (married, de facto, divorced, widowed, etc.)
• Participants with more kids and/or more education were more likely to follow through to the last survey
• Employment status did not show any effects on completion rates, and people were equally likely to complete the surveys regardless of whether they were receiving treatment for a mental or physical difficulty.

These results are generally consistent with the trends we've seen in previous time points. The next thing I'll be interested in looking at is patterns of people who completed every survey compared to those who only completed a few. What motivated people to stick to answering these in-depth surveys every time?

It won't be such a long break until I have new information this time - I just moved house (again) and got married.

We've just bought a super computer, which will help us keep making progress on the models that we were stuck on earlier, and will hopefully speed up our progress on analysing time point one so we can move onto the good stuff!

I've just re-drawn the unclaimed prize for the sixth time point, so check those emails to see if you're the lucky last winner!

I'm getting married next weekend (sorry about the recent blog neglect), but when I return I will start investigating the new data set and will keep you all updated on any exciting new.


All the best,

Miri

Yay! I'm excited to announce the end of the data collection phase. Our final participants completed their sixth time point at 11 this morning. We officially have 497 complete responses at the sixth time point, which is a 49% retention rate! Amazing!

Thanks again to all of you for your ongoing dedication and support - it means a great deal to me. It will be a while before we get around to analysing all six time points, but we're making great progress on time point one.

Once I get a chance to look at time point six in more detail, and string together all of the data, I'll post about the response rates throughout the study.

I've just done the final prize draw so check those emails! Also keep an eye out for the results, which will be forwarded to you if you asked for them at the end of the study.


All the best,

Miri

I've just re-drawn the prize for Time Point Five - so check those emails and Spam boxes!

Just over a week until all time points are completed, and the data collection phase of this study is complete. Can't wait!


Cheers,

Miri

Time point four has finally been claimed! Now poor time point five has to be re-drawn, as it has remained unclaimed for the fortnight. I'm away at the moment, so the prize will be re-drawn on Monday. Check those emails!


Enjoy your weekend,

Miri

So Time Point Four will henceforth be know as the 'unpopular time point'.  I've just redrawn it for a third time. Make sure you check those emails! You wouldn't want to check your spam box in two weeks, only to find you missed out!


Best of luck,

Miri

So as of this morning, everyone working their way through the survey has completed time point five! We have 464 complete time points, which represents a 46% retention rate. It might not sound great that just over half of our participants have dropped out, but I'm a glass-half-full kinda gal, and I think it's unreal that half of you actually stuck with an extensive online survey across five time points! Online surveys are particularly tricky to get people to stick with, because there's no one to call and remind you or cajole you into coming in for the next testing session. So a 46% retention rate is pretty brilliant for a study like this - thank you all so much for your dedication! I'm hoping that there will be a little spike up to 50% at time point six, but we'll see in a month.

The people who continued from time point one to time point five were more likely to be female, over 35, married or defacto, and have a university degree, compared to the people who did not complete time point five. At time point five, 76% of the sample is female (compared to 72% at time point 1), 65% don't have kids (compared to 70%), 68% have a uni degree (compared to 63%), and 46% work full time (same as at time point one). So we clearly don't have a representative sample of the population, but we have a good spread over all categories of demographics, which will give us plenty to work with.

In another month, the sixth time point will close, and the whole data collection phase will be complete! I can't adequately express how excited I am to have so much rich data to start work on answering the slippery questions on how depression, anxiety and sexual problems are related over time. Right now we're working on the time point one data, analysing some tricky models, and when that's done (probably early 2013) we'll get our hands dirty with this longitudinal data.

Now that the fifth time point is closed, we have done the fifth prize draw, and the fourth draw remains unclaimed! Again, if it's not claimed by next Tuesday, I'll redraw the prize for a third potential lucky winner. So there's two emails out there in cyberspace worth $100 that may have your name on them. Check those junk boxes - email servers might not like "win" "prize" and "sex" all in one email. Who knows why - sounds like a pretty good email to me!

Sorry for the lack of meaty updates lately. Should have more for you soon - when we start doing preliminary analyses on the whole six point dataset, and when our second paper gets published.

Thanks again for your support and interest.


All the best,

Miri

I've just re-drawn the prize for time point four. Check those emails!

Next week time point five will also close, so I'll write a more detailed update on where the data stands, and do another prize draw.


Until then,

Miri

Just a quick note that the lucky winner of the prize at time point four has still not claimed their bounty! I've sent a third and final reminder to let them know they have until midnight tonight to claim it, otherwise tomorrow I'll redraw the prize to share the love with someone else.

Make sure you check your junk mail, it could be you!


All the best,

Miri

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you know that the fourth prize draw is still unclaimed, so check your junk mail because it might be you! If it is still unclaimed in a week's time, I'll redraw the prize.

The next draw (for time point five) will be done two weeks from Thursday.


Good luck!

Miri