Study design
Endpoint
A measured outcome used to judge the effect of an exposure or intervention.
What it means
Definition
Endpoint. An endpoint may be a clinical event, symptom score, biomarker or composite measure. The strength of a headline depends heavily on whether the endpoint is meaningful to patients.
What it can tell you
It can show how close the evidence is to a real human health outcome.
What it cannot tell you
It cannot prove that a treatment works in people unless human outcome data are available.
Headline trap
Why this matters in headlines
A headline about “heart health” may rely on a cholesterol endpoint rather than fewer heart attacks.