My Clinical Truth Checklist

What is this checklist?

This is a checklist to help you evaluate whether a clinical claim is true. Before trusting any clinical statement, it's important to check the facts. The Clinical Truth Checklist is a quick and simple tool to help you assess the quality of a study that a brand uses to support its clinically proven claims. From a clear hypothesis to peer-reviewed publication, this checklist walks you through 8 key elements that determine if a clinical trial is trustworthy and well-designed.

Many companies claim their products are clinically proven, but what does that really mean?

Clinically proven means that studies have been conducted to show the product is effective. As a consumer, it's essential to separate true claims from exaggerated ones. The good news is, you don’t need a PhD to do this, we’ve created a simple checklist to help you navigate through the information.

When to use this checklist?

If you're considering buying a product that the brand claims to be clinically proven and the company cites research to support it, you can use the checklist to quickly evaluate:

• The study is well designed

• The results can be trusted

• The claim matches what the study actually shows

What To Check — And Why It Matters

Term	What does it mean	Why is it important
Hypothesis	A research hypothesis is a clear, educated guess about what the researcher thinks will be the outcome of the study.	A research hypothesis shows what the study is trying to prove. It is the foundation of the research question. It should be precise and clearly mention the intervention, effect and outcome. If it’s not clear, specific, or testable, the whole paper becomes harder to trust. 1
Type of Study	The type of study is basically the method used to conduct the research. It is usually mentioned under the methodology section of a paper.	The study design tells you how the research was conducted and how strong the evidence is. For example, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are best for showing cause and effect, while cohort or cross-sectional studies can show patterns or associations but not direct proof. 2
Funding	Some studies are funded by organizations and this is usually mentioned in the paper to avoid conflict of interest	Funding sources influence study integrity. Studies backed by standard organizations (e.g., ICMR) are generally unbiased, whereas those supported by large private entities may be skewed to favor the interests of the sponsoring venture.
Sample	Sample refers to the group being studied. This can include humans, animals, or even materials.	A good sample is representative of the larger group and chosen randomly to avoid bias. It should be sufficiently large to produce reliable results and consistent if the study were repeated.
Outcome measure	An outcome measure is what the study is checking to see if the treatment helps—like pain, symptoms, or test results. It should be clear and easy to measure. The study should also say how much change counts as an improvement (e.g., a 50% reduction in pain). 3	Clear and specific outcome measures make it easier to tell whether the treatment worked and by how much.
Duration	The period for which the study was conducted	The study should be long enough to detect meaningful effects (especially for chronic conditions). Bonus points for follow-up periods assessing sustainability or late-onset side effects.
Result	Results show what the study found—what changed, improved, or stayed the same. This includes numbers, patterns, effect size and whether those changes were meaningful or just by chance.	Effect size tells us how big or important the result is in a study, while the P value just tells us if the result is likely to be real or not (whether it's statistically significant). The P value doesn't show how big the effect is. So, both are important to report: the effect size helps us understand the importance of the result, and the P value tells us if it’s a true finding or just by chance. 4
Publication	A peer-reviewed journal is a scientific publication where submitted articles are evaluated by independent experts (peers) in the same field before being accepted for publication. These reviewers assess the quality, accuracy, and validity of the research.	Peer review acts as a quality control filter—it helps ensure the study is credible, the methods are sound, and the conclusions are based on solid evidence. This makes peer-reviewed journals more trustworthy sources of scientific information. 5

Berry Perspective

“We’ve seen countless users confused by well-marketed products that skip the basics. The goal of this checklist is to return the power to you — so you can make decisions from a place of knowledge, not fear or fluff.”

What To Do Next

You can use this checklist in the following situations:

• When you encounter a company claiming their products are clinically proven with referenced studies.

• If you want to determine for yourself whether an intervention is genuinely proven to work.

• Or if you're simply interested in reading research papers and gathering more information.

References

1. Misra DP, Gasparyan AY, Zimba O, Yessirkepov M, Agarwal V, Kitas GD. Formulating hypotheses for different study designs. J Korean Med Sci. 2021 Dec 27;36(50):e338.

1. Kiani AK, Naureen Z, Pheby D, Henehan G, Brown R, et al. Methodology for clinical research. J Prev Med Hyg. 2022 Oct 17.

1. Vetter TR, Mascha EJ. Defining the primary outcomes and justifying secondary outcomes of a study: usually, the fewer, the better. Anesth Analg. 2017 Aug;125(2):678–81.

1. Sullivan GM, Feinn R. Using effect size—or why the P value is not enough. J Grad Med Educ. 2012 Sep;4(3):279–82.

1. Folan B. Principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing - OASPA [Internet]. OASPA; 2024 Jun 3 [cited 2025 Apr 23]. Available from: https://www.oaspa.org/news/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/