Research and Critical Appraisal Flashcards
What does PICO stand for?
Population Intervention/Issue Comparison Outcome Time
What are the types of clinical questions that may be asked?
- most appropriate assessment for client group
- treatment effectiveness
- cost
- client experiences and concerns
- likely course of disability/disease
List population factors as part of the PICO
age group, diagnosis, geographic location, gender
What is the issue in the PICO? What are some common issues?
what the population is exposed to.
Intervention, test/assessment and predictor of interest
What are some comparisons used in the PICO?
alternative intervention gold standard measure or nothing
What are some outcomes in the PICO?
reduction in symptoms measurement in impairment improved quality of life reduced number of deaths, reduced costs and improved service delivery
What does time mean when used in the PICO?
over what time period is of interest
List the boolean operators and what they do
AND - gives results with both subjects limiting the field
OR - gives results about variants of a PICO element broadening results obtained
NOT - prohibits irrelevant results coming up
What is the process of acquiring evidence?
- begin with clearly defined clinical question
- conducting comprehensive and efficient searches using the PICO
- searching in the right places
- choosing the right evidence and right research design
What are the two main sources of evidence?
- filtered: already appraised resources
- unfiltered: sources not appraised
List filtered sources of evidence
Cochrane library, OT seeker, clinical guidelines, PEDro, Trip etc.
List unfiltered sources of evidence
CINAHL, Medine and PsychInfo
What are some filtered research designs?
systematic reviews, critically appraised topics and critically appraised individual articles
What are some unfiltered research designs?
randomized control trials, cohort studies, case series/reports and case-controlled studies
What are the types of research designs?
systematic reviews, critically appraised topic, randomized control trials, cohort study, case-control and cross-sectional study
What is a systematic review?
an article in which the authors have systematically searched for, appraised and summarized all of the medical literature for a specific topic.
What is considered the best research design?
systematic reviews
What is a critically appraised topic?
a short summary of an article from the literature to answer a specific clinical question
What is a randomized control trial?
a group of patients is randomized into experimental groups and are followed up for variables/outcomes of interest
What research design is considered the ‘gold standard’ of trials?
Randomized Control Trials
What is a cohort study?
Includes the identification of two groups of patients - one receives the exposure of interest, the other does not. Cohorts are followed to obtain the outcome of interest
What is a case-control study?
identifying patients who have the outcome of interest and control patients without the outcome and looking to see if they had the exposure of interest
What is a cross-sectional study?
sample population at some point in time and determine factors associated with outcome by measuring them to see who has the outcome or comparing between the established test and new test.