Studies with low quality ratings demonstrate little evidence that findings are attributable, in part or in full, to the intervention examined. A low quality rating suggests that there is a high risk of bias. The Pathways Clearinghouse focuses on providing detailed information for studies rated high or moderate quality because these studies have a lower risk of bias, and these interventions are more likely to have contributed to the reported outcomes.

The Pathways Clearinghouse estimates effect sizes for each finding with a high or moderate rating when the study or study authors provide sufficient information to calculate an effect size. The Pathways Clearinghouse team contacts authors to obtain the information necessary to calculate the effect size, but in some cases, sufficient information is not available.

An effectiveness rating is the assessment of the Pathways Clearinghouse, based on the existing evidence from impact studies, of the extent to which a given intervention improves a specific type of outcome. The effectiveness rating is a holistic assessment of whether an intervention is likely to produce favorable results if faithfully replicated with a similar population. An effect size is a standardized measure that allows us to make direct and meaningful comparisons across different outcomes, settings, and interventions.

An effectiveness rating assesses whether an intervention is likely to produce favorable results if faithfully replicated with a similar population. Outcome domains with well-supported ratings are those that the evidence suggests are most likely to improve if an intervention were replicated with a similar population. Outcome domains with supported ratings have some evidence that the intervention improves them, but the evidence is less conclusive.

This has to do with the difference between how we calculate whether or not an intervention has evidence of being effective on a given outcome domain and how we calculate the size of an intervention’s effects on that outcome domain. In order to receive a supported rating, an intervention must have at least one statistically significant, favorable finding and no statistically significant unfavorable findings in the given outcome domain.

Most of the studies reviewed by the Pathways Clearinghouse report information using the biological sex categories of male and female. Fewer studies report on gender demographics, including but not limited to transgender and nonbinary-inclusive gender categories. In order to present information consistently across all studies, the Pathways Clearinghouse has, at this time, limited itself to presenting biological sex categories rather than gender.

Individuals within the study sample could fall into these categories because they chose not to identify their race, because the authors did not collect or report race and ethnicity data, or because the individual identified with a race other than one of the federal categories.