PICO
Population, Intervention, Comparator, and Outcome in a Research Question
After formulating a research question using the FINER framework, researchers become more deliberate and objective by refining and explicitly defining critical aspects of the research question.
PICO (population, intervention, comparator, and outcome) is the framework promoted in evidence-based medicine (EBM) for structuring research questions and conducting literature searches.*
PICO is much more practical and applicable in the clinical setting versus the FINER framework. The four components of the PICO mnemonic form a question that is answerable, measurable, and focused.
PICO can also be used as a literature search tool. If researchers enter search queries with the population, intervention, control, and outcome included, more specific (or healthier) search results will be yielded.
When researchers experience cognitive dissonance associated with a "knowledge gap," EBM principles specify that clinicians should write these questions down in the PICO format for later literature searches.
PICO (population, intervention, comparator, and outcome) is the framework promoted in evidence-based medicine (EBM) for structuring research questions and conducting literature searches.*
PICO is much more practical and applicable in the clinical setting versus the FINER framework. The four components of the PICO mnemonic form a question that is answerable, measurable, and focused.
PICO can also be used as a literature search tool. If researchers enter search queries with the population, intervention, control, and outcome included, more specific (or healthier) search results will be yielded.
When researchers experience cognitive dissonance associated with a "knowledge gap," EBM principles specify that clinicians should write these questions down in the PICO format for later literature searches.
Click on the Population button to continue working through the PICO framework.
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*Straus SE, Glasziou P, Richardson WS, Haynes RB. Evidence-based medicine: How to practice and teach it. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 2011.
