Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences

Background questions can help you develop foundational knowledge about whatever topic interests you.

Topic example: mindfulness training and chronic pain management in patients with fibromyalgia

Here are some examples of background questions related to the topic:

• What populations of people are most impacted by fibromyalgia?
• What types of therapies are most commonly used to treat pain in fibromyalgia patients?
• How is mindfulness defined? Are there different types of mindfulness training? If so, what are they?
• What are the core principles underlying mindfulness and mindfulness training?
• How does one measure chronic pain?

The Find Background Information section of this guide lists useful sources for answering background questions.

Foreground questions are specific. They often deal with a particular therapy or intervention of interest.

A research question framework can help you organize the concepts in your foreground question. There are a number of different frameworks. The one you choose should correspond to the type of question you are asking.

• PICO (Problem/Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome): The most common clinical question framework. Useful for clinical questions addressing the effect of an intervention, therapy, or treatment. 
• ECLIPSe (Expectation, Client Group, Location, Impact, Professionals, Service): Useful for questions about policy and services.
• PCC (Population/Problem, Concept, Context): Useful for broad scoping questions.
• PEO (Population, Exposure, Outcome): Useful for describing association between exposures/risk factors and outcomes.
• SPICE (Setting, Perspective, Intervention/phenomenon of Interest, Comparison, Evaluation): Useful for evaluating the outcomes of a service, project, or intervention.
• SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research Type): Useful for questions of experience or perspectives (questions that may be addressed by qualitative or mixed methods research).

P (Population/Problem of Interest) = People with fibromyalgia

I (Intervention) = Mindfulness training

C (Comparison Intervention) = Cognitive behavioral therapy

O (Outcome) = Chronic pain management

E (Expectation) = To increase access to occupational therapy services

C (Client Group) = People with chronic pain living in rural communities

L (Location of service or policy) = Hospitals

I (Impact of service or policy) = Increased utilization of occupational therapy services by people with chronic pain living in rural areas

P (Professionals involved in offering the service or policy) = Occupational therapists, Hospital administrators

Se (Service) = Occupational therapy services

P (Population characteristics or Problem focus) = Graduate students

C (Concept being examined) = Technological literacy

C (Context for the question - could include geographic location, setting of interest, etc.) = Occupational therapy programs

P (Population) = Novice occupational therapists

E (Exposure) = Mentoring programs

O (Outcome) = Professional confidence

S (Setting) = Occupational therapy graduate programs

P (Perspective) = New occupational therapy graduate students

I (Intervention/Interest/Exposure) = Mindfulness training

C (Comparison) = No mindfulness training

E (Evaluation) = Reduced stress levels

S (Sample, i.e. the group being studied) = Occupational therapists

PI (Phenomenon of Interest, i.e., the reason for the behavior or decisions) = Clinical placements in rural communities

D (Design, i.e. how the research was collected) = Surveys and interviews

E (Evaluation, i.e. the outcome being impacted) = Attitudes and experiences

R (Research type) = Qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods