English term
the nonrandom disappearance of certain
| 1 | it could mean anything |
Max Nuijens
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| 3 | nonrandom = deliberate |
Tatiana N. (X)
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| 3 | affected by a specific factor |
Christine Andersen
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PRO (1): Christine Andersen
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Responses
Netherlands
Energy & Environment, MSc
Native in: Dutch (Variant: Netherlands) 
Works in: English to Dutch
it could mean anything
When some members of the control group disappear (or there is some reason why they do not yield any information anymore), statistical tricks can be used to still make a useful comparison. The simplest is to reduce the number of the group under influence of any factor the study is directed at.
However, when control group members disappear nonrandomly, i.e. the reason they disappear or cannot be used anymore to extract information is connected to the factor under investigation, then the sample becomes contaminated. Contaminated means thus not useful anymore for research purposes.
But given the lack of info (type of research, more sentences), I cannot say anything nonrandom at this point.
nonrandom = deliberate
Denmark
the message, not just the words
Native in: English (Variant: UK)
Works in: Danish to English, English
affected by a specific factor
Nonrandom need not be deliberate - it could be an accident.
For instance, a random sample of the population would be expected (all other things being equal) to include roughly equal numbers of men and women, but as the study progressed, it might prove to affect one gender more than the other.
Some external event might have the same result by occurring unpredictably during the period of the study.
It simply means that there is some bias in the reason or reasons for dropping out, so that the remaining control group is no longer random.
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