Data Impacted by COVID-19

In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the availability and willingness of the public to access health care services.  This led to delays and reductions in cancer screening and diagnosis, and a subsequent dramatic short-term drop in the incidence rates for some cancers.

The Joinpoint model was not designed to accommodate this one-time anomaly in the rates caused by the COVID-19 pandemic impacting some of the last years in a data series.  Including 2020 (and possibly 2021) in the Joinpoint trends may bias interpretation of the impact of longer-term trends in risk factors as well as the impact of cancer control efforts in cancer prevention and screening. 

To exclude select data points from the Joinpoint modeling, please see the Exclude Data Points help section.