Hi Elan, it sounds like you are partly on the right track. For trials, “I” is for intervention, for observational studies, exchange the “I” with “E” for exposure (PECO). In both cases, “C” is the comparison group for the intervention or exposure.
When you say you find the PICO for both to be the same, that will depend on how you set up your specific question and target trial. It is possible they could be very close, though, for the observational study, the idea is to propose something that one could more likely actually do. So the target trial gives you the ideal, and the observational study is what one could potentially actually do. Discussing how close these are or not (and the consequences), is part of the last part of q10a.
I hope this makes sense/helps.
Thanks,
JM Chan
When you say you find the PICO for both to be the same, that will depend on how you set up your specific question and target trial. It is possible they could be very close, though, for the observational study, the idea is to propose something that one could more likely actually do. So the target trial gives you the ideal, and the observational study is what one could potentially actually do. Discussing how close these are or not (and the consequences), is part of the last part of q10a.
I hope this makes sense/helps.
Thanks,
JM Chan