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Systematic Reviews

Developing a question

Before you start a systematic review, researchers must define the scope of the research question. There are many frameworks used to construct a research question. 

Examine your topic to identify the major concepts you need to conduct the best searches. Consider: 

Background planning: think of the 5 W's and H for your topic: 

  • Who - are the stakeholders; is the population of interest; are the involved parties?
  • What - are the issues; are the problems; are the healthcare needs?
  • Where - is the focus of the study; is the geographically isolated area; are the national or global issues?
  • When - were studies conducted? does the timeline document the issue?
  • Why - is this problem, need, issue being addressed; is the review study critical to addressing it?
  • How - will possible solutions, interventions, other aspects of the research be assessed for effectiveness or quality; will results be delivered and/or implemented?

PICO

What is PICO? 

The framework PICO stands for Patient/Population/Problem, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome. It is a tool commonly used in medical and health research to help formulate a research question. The difficulty in creating a question is often underestimated and PICO can help us parse out the important elements for what a transparent question should contain. 

  • P: Patient/Population/Problem - the main problem you are addressing. What are the characteristics of the outlined problem and/or stakeholder population settings?
  • I: Intervention - the method to implement to address the problem of interest
  • C: Comparison - are there different interventions being compared?
  • O: Outcome - the measures reported in studies of interest. What are the measurable outcomes (standardized measures if possible) that would demonstrate the level of effectiveness of an intervention/implementation method or comparison that you are researching?

Use the resources from the National Library of Medicine to understand the PICO framework and learn how to formulate a research question. You can also check out the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions on how to develop a research question.

 

EXAMPLE – Are anti-vaping campaigns effective interventions for e-cigarette use among high school students?

  • PICO: 
    • P: High school students. Those between the ages typically 12-19. This may need to be further specified as the average age of a high school student varies. This is something that would need to be defined. The scope also may entail those students who are in American public high schools. 
    • I: Anti-vaping campaigns. Further specifications can be elaborated such as whether they are peer-lead campaigns or education programs lead by school faculty. 
    • C: No comparison applicable for this question, since it is only examining one intervention. 
    • O: Do anti-smoking campaigns have a positive impact to reduce teen e-cigarette smoking? 

To see how this PICO Question gets broken down and searched, please see our Databases LibGuide.