deHype terminology
Caveats
Important limitations or qualifications that affect how a finding should be interpreted.
What it means
Definition
Caveats: Caveats are not minor technicalities. They often determine whether a headline is fair, overstated, or misleading.
What it can tell you
It can help explain why a report is cautious even when the underlying study is real.
What it cannot tell you
It cannot replace reading the source evidence, methods and limitations.
Headline trap
Why this matters in headlines
A caveat may be that the study used a surrogate marker rather than a clinical endpoint.