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PT 773: Evidence-based Practice and Research Methods

What is PICO?

PICO is a framework designed to help develop research questions that can more easily be parsed into searchable components.

  • P = Patient / Population of interest
  • I = Intervention or Treatment of interest
  • C = Comparison Intervention/Treatment (hint: there may not always be one)
  • O = Outcome of interest

There are many question development frameworks besides PICO (see module further down this page), but PICO is a simple one with which to begin.

This short video tutorial from PEDro will help show how PICO is used in research question development.

Question Development Frameworks

Type of Study1 Question/Framework1 Components of the Model1
Interventional/Effectiveness PICO(T/S) Patient/Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome, (Time/Study design)
Etiologic/Risk/Cause PEO Population, Exposure/Environment, Outcome
Incidence/Prevalence CoCoPop Condition, Context, Population
Diagnostic test accuracy PIRD Population, Index Test, Reference Test, Diagnosis of Interest
Prognostic PFO Population, Prognostic Factor (or model of interest), Outcome
Economic/Cost-effectiveness PICOC Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcomes, Context
Methodologic SDMO Study type, Data type, Method type, Outcome
Theory/Model BeHEMoTh Behavior of interest, Health context, Exclusions, Models or Theories
Psychometric CPTM Construct of interest (measurement instrument), Population, Type of measurement instrument, Measurement properties
Qualitative PICo Population, Phenomena of Interest, Context
Qualitative PPhTS Participants, Central Phenomenon, Time, and Space
Qualitative: Public health SPICE Setting, Perspective, Intervention, Comparison, Evaluation
Qualitative/Mixed-Method: Experience and views SPIDER Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type
Qualitative: Organizational and policy evaluation CIMO Context, Intervention, Mechanism, Outcome
Qualitative: Health policy and management ECLIPSe Expectation, Client group, Location, Impact, Professionals, Service
Scoping PCC Population, Concept, Context

References

References

  1. Hosseini, Mohammad-Salar, et al. “Formulating Research Questions for Evidence-Based Studies.” Journal of Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health, vol. 2, 2024, pp. 100046-, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glmedi.2023.100046