It helps to get into a mindframe that will help you formulate your question and think deeply about how best to answer it through the research process. There are several ways to formulate a PICO question too, so each question takes a bit of a different form.
A good question…
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Therapy |
Etiology |
Diagnosis |
Prevention |
Prognosis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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P – Population or Patient or Disease |
Characteristics of a population (age, gender, ethnicity, etc) within a specific condition or set of circumstances. Example: Sudanese Refugees |
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I -Intervention or Exposure |
Specific Drug, therapy, or Procedural Intervention |
Exposure to certain conditions or risk behavior |
Alternative diagnostic tool or procedure |
Specific drug or procedural intervention |
Specific drug, therapy, or procedural intervention |
|
C – Comparison |
Alternative drug, therapy, or procedural intervention |
Absence of certain conditions or risk behavior |
Alternative diagnostic tool or procedure |
Alternative drug or procedural intervention |
Alternative drug, therapy, or procedural intervention |
|
O – Outcome |
Management of disease/condition |
Development of disease/condition |
Effective diagnosis of condition |
Prevention of Disease/condition |
Occurrence or absence of new condition |
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T – Time Frame |
The time it takes to demonstrate an outcome or the period in which patient are observed. Example: the six month period following childbirth. |
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PICO questions are typically used in Nursing and most clinical health research.
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Client Type and Problem [1] |
What you Might Do [2] | Alternative Course of Action [3] | What you aim to Accomplish [4] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Across: Four elements of a good question. ------------------- DOWN: Five Question Types |
Describe the group of clients; be specific about characteristics. | Apply a treatment; actions to prevent a problem; measures to assess a problem; client surveys; screening to assess risk | alternatives or comparisons of interventions to the methods proposed in column [2]. | the outcomes of the treatments from [2] and/or [3]. were there valid measures? Accurate risk estimation, prevented behavior, accurate estimation of need? |
| Effectiveness | If disoriented elderly persons living in residential nursing homes | are given reality orientation therapy | or validation therapy | which will result in better orientation to time, place, and person? |
| Prevention | If sexually active high school students at high risk for pregnancy | are exposed to sex education that includes instruction on proper use of birth control methods | or Baby-Think-It-Over | which group will have knowledge of birth control methods/use birth control methods/have fewer pregnancies? |
| Assessment | If aged residents of a nursing home with alzheimer's or dementia may have depression | are administered depression screening tests | or a short mental status examination | which measure will be the briefest, most inexpensive, valid and reliable test to differentiate between depression and dementia? |
| Description | If family members of persons diagnosed with Aphasia meet for a support group | and receive a short client satisfaction questionnaire given to all support group participants | which areas will the clients list as their ares of greasts and least satisfaction? | |
| Risk | If those calling a crisis line for a battered women's shelter | are administered a risk assessment scale via telephone | or are assessed only by the answerer's "practical judgement" without a scale | then will the risk scale have a higher reliability and predictive validity regarding future violence? |
COPES questions are typically used in Social Work and some other helping professions as a question framework.