Research Methods & Evidence-Based Practice Flashcards

In evidence-based practice, what does the acronym PICO stand for?

Answer: Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome

PICO is a framework for forming clinical questions: Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome.

Which level of evidence is generally considered the strongest in a hierarchy of evidence?

Answer: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses pool results from multiple high-quality studies, placing them at the top of most evidence hierarchies.

An OEC technician reads that a new splinting technique 'showed statistically significant improvement (p = 0.03).' What does this mean?

Answer: There is a 3% chance the observed difference occurred by chance alone

A p-value of 0.03 means there is a 3% probability the results occurred by random chance under the null hypothesis.

What is the primary purpose of a control group in a clinical study?

Answer: To provide a comparison baseline against the experimental intervention

A control group receives no intervention or a standard treatment, allowing researchers to compare outcomes against the experimental group.

Which type of study design best establishes cause-and-effect relationships between an intervention and an outcome?

Answer: Randomized controlled trial

Randomized controlled trials randomly assign participants to groups, minimizing confounding and best supporting causal inference.

A wilderness first aid study reports a 95% confidence interval of 2–8 minutes for time to effective airway management. What does this interval indicate?

Answer: Researchers are 95% confident the true population mean falls between 2 and 8 minutes

A 95% confidence interval means that if the study were repeated many times, 95% of such intervals would contain the true population parameter.

When critically appraising a research article on OEC protocols, which question addresses internal validity?

Answer: Were participants randomly assigned and were confounding variables controlled?

Internal validity concerns whether the study design correctly measured what it intended to, including randomization and control of confounders.