Question

A group of researchers wants to evaluate the impact of a smoking cessation intervention on 50 cardiac patients at the outpatient clinic at a hospital, and compare that to another 50 cardiac patients from another hospital who did not receive the smoking cessation intervention.

Explain you answer. Write one research question and one objective to the above mentioned phenomenon of interest.

I think an example for the question is what is the effect of a smoking cessation intervention on 50 cardiac patients? im not sure if this is right and need help. Thank you

Answer 1

PICO PRINCIPLE

• It is a useful model to help structure an answerable question
• It breaks down the question in to four key elements
• P - Population, Patient, Problem

Population or Patient describes the person we are interested in.

Here the population can be described as Patients with Cardiac problems

• I - Intervention or Indicator

Intervention describes the causes, risk factors , prognostic factors, treatment or intervention

Intervention or indicator - smoking

• C - Comparator or Control

Comparator describes the alternative to the intervention

Comparator - Smoking cessation

• O - Outcome

Outcome describes the effect of exposure or the goal to be accomplished.

Outcome - Impact of smoking cessation

Does smoking cessation has any effects on cardiac patients as compared to those who don't stop smoking?