Identifying search concepts
Going back to our example scenario :
Population: patients over the age of 65 with depression
Intervention: exercise
Comparator: drug treatment
Outcomes: reduction in depression symptoms
We can use these elements to develop our research question. It is important that your research question contains all of the PICO elements
Searching is an iterative process, you will usually need to undertake a number of searches before you fix on the version that is finding you the best results
When searching however we do not start with all of the concepts from the question
A very general rule is to start with 3 search concepts and then adjust after taking a look at the results. Start with the elements that are most relevant, this would normally be the I and the P components of your PICO
Searching is a discovery process - therefore the outcome element of the search needs to be considered as part of the appraisal of the search results, and not necessarily used as a search concept
From our example we could start with:
- Exercise - I
- Older adults - P
- Depression - P