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.

The Pathways Clearinghouse strives to present a complete set of race and ethnicity data for each study, in accordance with the federal standards for classifying data on race and ethnicity. In practice, for most studies this means that an individual can fall only into single race or ethnicity category. For example, a person would identify as either Hispanic or Black, but not both.

Whenever possible, the Pathways Clearinghouse follows federal standards for classifying data on race and ethnicity. For some studies—in particular, studies published before 2000—Pathways Clearinghouse uses earlier classifications of race and ethnicity to be consistent with how studies tended to report this information at the time.