Defining the research question

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Anonymous
15/09/2009
I am aware of the PICO acronym for focusing a research question but there are often times when I may have a research question for which there isn’t really a comparison group – what do I do with the “C” in that case?
 
dciliska
16/09/2009
Situations where you need a comparison group are those when you are trying to determine if an intervention or program has made a difference i.e., was it effective? In that case the group that gets the new program or intervention is your “treatment group” and your “comparison group” could be the group that is receiving the “standard care” or usual program (which could be nothing).

If your question is about meaning, as may be the case in qualitative research, there may be no comparison. For example, why do female teens smoke cigarettes? Instead of PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome) , we use PS (Population and Situation) - the population (female teens), the situation (smoking cigarettes) in order to find relevant research.

Donna
 
Anonymous
18/09/2009
Hi - this may seem like a stupid question but could the "I" for intervention be a prevention strategy or program? Some times the language of PICO can sound so clinical i.e., "treatment", that I wonder if it's transferable to prevention and health promotion.

Thanks for the option to be anonymous...helps when you think you should know you answer but you don't.
 
dciliska
21/09/2009
Re option to be anonymous - You are welcome.

There are no stupid questions! Yours is a good one.

The “I” for intervention is a clinical term, but YES – it does refer to community and prevention interventions, programs and strategies.

The other “twist” is for questions of causation (eg. does cell phone use cause brain tumors?), then the “I” is changed to “ E” and we have PECO (Population, Exposure, Comparison and Outcome).


Donna
 
Paton, Patricia
16/10/2009
In this discussion around defining the research question, may I offer another method on the qualitative side? This works well at the identification stage, when trying to decide on a reseach question or decide between possible questions. It was presented to me as FINER. I've used where PICO seems problematic (and this can be for a variety of reasons, including that one is not quite at a stage where you can look at the categories).

FINER: is the question you have about your topic/problem:
Feasible (to research)?
Interesting (to research)?
Novel (to research)?
Ethical (to research)?
Relevant (to research)?

Trish
 
Ciliska, Donna
19/10/2009
Thanks for your post and comments, Trish.

I would just add that FINER is particularly useful as a tool when you are considering conducting research.

Donna