How we grade evidence
Why every claim gets a label
Osteoarthritis research is moving quickly, but not at the same speed for every question. Some things are well confirmed in people. Others are early findings from lab research. Some questions are still open. We think you deserve to know which is which, every time — so every explainer carries one of three labels, prominently, near the top.
Multiple human studies — often including clinical trials or large long-term cohorts — point the same direction. This is the closest thing we have to settled science, though "settled" in research always leaves room for future revision.
The evidence comes from animal studies or lab models of joint tissue. These models are how most human treatments start, but findings in mice, rats, or cell cultures don’t always hold up the same way in people — that step hasn’t happened yet.
Either the research hasn’t been done yet, or existing studies disagree. We say so plainly instead of implying more certainty than the science actually supports.
What grading is not
This system tells you how strong the evidence is for a general claim — not how likely something is to happen to you specifically. A well-established finding about osteoarthritis in general doesn't tell us your personal risk, and an early animal study doesn't mean a treatment is close to ready. For anything about your own situation, that's a conversation for you and your clinician, not a label on a webpage.
Who assigns the label
Our scientific reviewers assign and check each label before an explainer is published, based on the type and consistency of the research behind the claim — not on how promising or exciting a finding is. When evidence shifts, we update the label.
Want the primary sources?
Our explainers translate the research; they don't replace it. If you want to read the original, published studies behind this site — or watch the lab's own research talks — visit our Research Library or Videos section. Both are written for a scientific audience, not simplified the way the rest of this site is.