Summary of research topic
The prevalence of obesity and the significant correlation between obesity and weight is a pertinent issue that healthcare providers are seeking to manage. In the interventions that have been developed to help prevent obesity for groups at risk, weight loss programs or regimens have proven to help these patients cut weight and apparently minimize the risk of illnesses or conditions that manifest from obesity such as cardiovascular cases. Once the programs or such interventions come to an end, patients are expected to continue with the regime even in the absence of the nursing care or healthcare provider who initiated the program. These could be either motivation-based programs or skill-based programs. Motivation-based regimens focus on behavioral change and patients are educated on the methods of weight loss and maintenance of normal weight. Skill-based regimens on the other hand focus on the imparting patients with the skills to sustain the regimen in the long term.
However, there have been concerns that motivation-based programs do not provide patients with the long term ability to maintain weight loss and are at risk of gaining weight again and hence a relapse. The impacts of a relapse to the health of the patient as well as their self-efficacy are massive and this indicates the importance of bridging this visible gap in these interventions. Nurses have a role to ensure that patients complete and sustain such programs if at all the health goals set at the beginning of the program are to be achieved now and into the future. This topic is important within practice and it should be integrated in evidence-based practice. With the focus of nursing currently being prevention especially for lifestyle illnesses, the lack of interventions that are based on long tern results actually eliminates the very essence of such programs. It is important that nurses take measures that seek to incorporate skills for regimen continuity so that even as behavioral aspects are nurtured, patients can equally sustain the regimen in future and avoid weight gain.
Research question
Quantitative study
For patients with obesity or at risk of obesity, does a motivation-based weight loss regimen as compared to a skill-based regimen affect weight maintenance in the next twelve months after the completion of the regimen?
The PICOT question stated here suitable works for a quantitative study since the focus of a quantitative research is on initiating or inquiring several answers to a set of questions or a single question from the primary problem. In this case, these studies seek to determine how specific variables within the population of target do change in relation to a particular or set of conditions. Within this perspective, the current question inquires whether patients who undergo motivation-based weight-loss regimens are likely to gain weight or maintain weight in the twelve months following the completion of the regimen. In quantification of the variable of weight, then it is possible to calculate and analyze the possible weight changes that occur in this target group and thus seek solutions based on evidence.
Qualitative study
For patients with obesity or at risk of obesity, does a motivation-based weight-loss regimen as compared to skill-based programs lead to increased self-efficacy and self-management in the twelve months following the completion of the regimen?
The qualitative question specifically focuses on the aspects of exploration of phenomena from an opinion-based, view-based or perception-based whereby the participants are directly involved in shaping those opinions. These opinions are then analyzed logically and used to develop discussions that then explain the phenomena under study. In this question, the aspects of self-efficacy and self-management cannot be accurately quantified and thus their exploration is based on opinion, perceptions and views (Houser, 2013).
How the first question meet PICOT criteria
The first question meets the criteria for PICOT in that it identifies the target population (P: Patients with obesity or at risk of obesity) and this narrows down to a specific group to eliminate generalized information. Secondly, the question identifies the proposed intervention (I: A motivation-based weight loss regimen) and the alternative/comparison (C: Skill-based weight-loss regimen) and thus provides an intervention and a control to help eliminate the effects of extraneous variables. Thirdly, the question states the expected results or outcomes (O: Weight maintenance) this keeping the researchers within the objectives and finally the timeline (T: Twelve months after the completion of the regimen) so that the program is not subjected to an infinite duration with the knowledge that time has significant influence on variables (Houser, 2015).
References
Houser, J. (2015). Chapter 4: Finding Problems and Writing Questions. In Nursing research: Reading, using, and creating evidence (3rd ed., pp. 92-95). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
