Guide Feedback
Did you find what you were looking for? Submit a Guide Feedback form to let us know what you liked or didn't like about this guide!
Why Use PICO?
A clinical question needs to be directly relevant to the patient or problem at hand and phrased in such a way as to facilitate the search for an answer. PICO makes this process easier. It is a mnemonic for the important parts of a well-built clinical question. It also helps formulate the search strategy by identifying the key concepts that need to be in the article that can answer the question. PICO stands for Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparison/Control, and Outcome. Below, you can find additional information about PICO questions and a few examples to help formulate your own.
Sample PICO Questions
Scenario: You are treating Michael, a 45 year-old male patient with diabetic foot ulcers. This is the third time Michael has been treated in the last year. In the past, he has been treated with moist wound therapy, but you are considering treating him with negative wound pressure instead. You need to do some research before making a treatment decision.
- Patients: "You are treating Michael, a 45 year-old male patient with diabetic foot ulcers. This is the third time..." Your patients are middle-aged men with chronic diabetic foot ulcers.
- Intervention: "...you are considering treating him with negative wound pressure instead." Your intervention is negative wound pressure therapy.
- Comparison: "...In the past, he has been treated with moist wound therapy..." Your comparison is moist wound therapy.
- Outcome: "...making a treatment decision (to heal his wounds)." Your outcome is improved wound healing.
PICO question: Is negative wound pressure or moist wound therapy more effective in healing chronic diabetic foot ulcers in middle-aged men?
Search terms: negative wound pressure, moist wound therapy, diabetic foot ulcer, middle-aged men, healing
PICO questions adapted from examples from the New South Wales Clinical Information Access Portal
Scenario: Anna, a prenatal patient, is consulting you about her birth plan. Anna would like to explore aromatherapy as a pain management tool during labor, but she has questions about its efficacy compared to an epidural. You will need to conduct research before presenting the options to Anna.
- Patients: "Anna, a prenatal patient, is consulting you about her birth plan. " Your patients are prenatal or pregnant patients.
- Intervention: "Anna would like to explore aromatherapy as a pain management tool during labor..." Your intervention is aromatherapy.
- Comparison: "....but she has questions about its efficacy compared to an epidural." Your comparison is epidural treatment.
- Outcome: " Anna would like to explore aromatherapy as a pain management tool during labor..." Your outcome is pain management.
PICO question: Can aromatherapy be an effective pain management tool for pregnant patients compared to an epidural?
Search terms: aromatherapy, pain management, pregnant, prenatal, labor and delivery, epidural
PICO questions adapted from examples from the New South Wales Clinical Information Access Portal
Scenario: You work in health services at a high school, and are suspicious that students are vaping in the bathrooms. You wonder if posting informational flyers in the bathrooms about the negative impacts of vaping would prevent the activity, but your colleague doesn't think it will be effective. Finding research to support or disprove your theory will help you decide on the best course of action.
- Patients: "You work in health services at a high school, and are suspicious that students are vaping in the bathrooms." Your patients are high school students.
- Intervention: "You wonder if posting informational flyers in the bathrooms..." Your intervention is informational flyers, or educational materials.
- Comparison: "...but your colleague doesn't think it will be effective." The comparison is the absence of educational materials.
- Outcome: "about the negative impacts of vaping would prevent the activity" Your outcome is vaping prevention, or decrease.
PICO question: Do educational materials decrease vaping rates in high school students (compared to no intervention)?
Search terms: education materials, teaching, vaping, high school students, teenagers
PICO questions adapted from examples from the New South Wales Clinical Information Access Portal
Scenario: Your patient, Hannah, is concerned about her risk of breast cancer. Hannah recently read a news article stating that light exposure at night can increase the risk of breast cancer. She has worked a night shift job for eight years and is wondering if she needs additional screening.
- Patients: "She has worked a night shift job for eight years..." Your patients are night shift workers.
- Intervention: "...and is wondering if she needs additional screening . " Your intervention is additional breast cancer screening.
- Comparison: "...and is wondering if she needs additional screening (compared to standard screening). " The comparison is standard screening.
- Outcome: "...and is wondering if she needs additional screening (for early detection of breast cancer). " Your outcome is early detection.
PICO question: Does additional breast cancer screening help with early detection for night shift workers?
Search terms: breast cancer, risk, screening, early detection, night shift, light-at-night
PICO questions adapted from examples from the New South Wales Clinical Information Access Portal
Try writing your own PICO question with this blank template and the question prompts.
Scenario: What is your starting point? What general question are you trying to answer and why?
- Patients: Who are you seeking to treat? Think about factors like the patients' age, race, gender identity, condition, etc.
- Intervention: What type of treatment, therapy, or other intervention do you want to test? This will be the treatment that you want to implement.
- Comparison: What possible alternative treatments are available? This could be the current gold standard of treatment. It could also be the absence of treatment (for example, providing educational materials vs. providing no educational materials).
- Outcome: What do you hope to achieve with the treatment? This could be things like reduced mortality, pain management, investigating etiology, etc.
PICO question: Once you have defined your PICO elements, put them together into a single question.
Search terms: From your question, highlight the PICO elements for your search terms. You can also start to add in related terms or synonyms (for example, smoking OR tobacco use OR nicotine use).