Loss of follow-up is a barrier to providing adequate care to paediatric cardiac patients. The purpose of this study was to determine variables associated with loss of appropriate paediatric cardiology follow-up, including potentially modifiable factors. We hypothesised having earlier recommend follow-up intervals was associated with less likelihood of loss of follow-up.

We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients >5 years old seen in a large, outpatient paediatric practice from 2013 to 2016. Subjects were considered to be lost to follow-up if they did not have a subsequent outpatient encounter by 6 months after their recommend follow-up time interval.

Of the 8940 eligible patients, 45.9% were lost to follow-up. Recommended follow-up interval of 1 year was associated with less loss of follow-up (41.4%) as compared to 2-year intervals (51.6%) and 3 years (55.7%) (p < 0.001 for both). Other significant predictors of loss of follow-up included less severe heart disease, older age, and non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity. Sex and payor type were not significant predictors. In the stratified analyses by severity of disease and age, longer recommended follow-up time was associated with greater loss of follow-up among all severity and age categories.

Almost half of the patients in our cohort did not return to clinic within the recommended timeline. Shorter follow-up time was associated with less loss of follow-up among all categories of disease severity and age groups. Recommending shorter follow-up intervals may be one initiative for paediatric cardiologists to improve rates of follow-up.

失访是为儿科心脏病患者提供充分护理的障碍。本研究的目的是确定与失去适当的儿科心脏病学随访相关的变量，包括潜在的可改变因素。我们假设较早推荐的随访间隔与失访的可能性较小有关。

我们对 2013 年至 2016 年在一家大型门诊儿科诊所就诊的 > 5 岁患者进行了一项回顾性队列研究。如果受试者在推荐后 6 个月内没有随后的门诊就诊，则被认为失访随访时间间隔。

在 8940 名符合条件的患者中，45.9% 的患者失访。与 2 年间隔 (51.6%) 和 3 年 (55.7%) 相比（两者的 p < 0.001），建议的 1 年随访间隔与更少的失访（41.4%）相关。失访的其他重要预测因素包括不太严重的心脏病、年龄较大和非西班牙裔黑人种族/民族。性别和付款人类型不是重要的预测因素。在按疾病严重程度和年龄进行的分层分析中，在所有严重程度和年龄类别中，较长的推荐随访时间与较大的失访率相关。

我们队列中几乎一半的患者没有在推荐的时间表内返回诊所。在所有疾病严重程度和年龄组中，较短的随访时间与较少的随访损失相关。建议更短的随访间隔可能是儿科心脏病专家提高随访率的一项举措。