Answer:
It depends on the settings that are selected:
- If all records for a cohort have zero counts, then the cohort is NOT processed.
- If some of the records for a cohort have zero counts, then Joinpoint will add 0.5 to zero counts in the following scenarios:
There must be one or more records in the cohort with a count greater than zero in order for Joinpoint to adjust zero counts within the cohort. When a session is executed, Joinpoint will scan the input file and notify users of any cohort that will have a count adjusted. Users will have the option to cancel the job. If the session is executed, the output will display a message for each cohort that had one or more counts adjusted.
- For all other situations, the cohort is NOT processed. In this case, a message will be displayed by Joinpoint and the executed job cancelled.
Practical remedy for zeros in data that prevent processing of a cohort:
- Consider aggregating the data by combining some of the years in order to eliminate the zero values.
- Example - aggregating the data could involve combining every two years of data or it could involve aggregating a particular two years to eliminate a particular zero in the data.
- As data are aggregated, the year values would have to be modified to reflect the aggregation.