Output Interval Groups

An Output Interval Group is a way of re-combining subject encounters into intervals.   Output intervals are used to apply encounters to different interval structures during the data export process.  StudyTRAX allows the user to set up any interval structure and it will find the encounters closet to that output interval and put in that encounter's values in the data set.

Output Interval Groups are typically used to collapse data into a new interval structure in cases where there is considerable missing data. For example, a research project may have planned to collect encounter data at Baseline, Month 1, Month 2, and Month 3. Consider the case of most subjects having at least one follow-up, but not all three follow-ups. In such a case, an Output Interval could be defined for Baseline and Month 2. The Month 2 range could be defined to cover all three months, thus minimizing the number of missing data points.

Another reason to use output intervals is to assign encounters collected in non-fixed intervals (intervals that contain multiple unscheduled encounters) into a fixed interval structure (one encounter per interval).