LibGuides: Evidence-Based Medicine &amp; Practice (EBM/EBP): PICO

PICO

PICO is an acronym that can help focus your research question. PICO stands for:

P	Patient, Population, or Problem
I	Intervention
C	Comparison or Control
O	Outcome

Here is an example.

Population	In high school football players who have received head injuries...
Intervention	would weekly checks of the air within the helmet padding...
Comparison	when compared to checking air pressure before the season and again mid-season...
Outcome	lead to lower concussion rates?

In this example, the focus is on high school football players with head injuries. This study compares weekly helmet checks to only two checks a season.

Is there a decrease in concussions rates with weekly checks?
If there is enough evidence, should the school district require athletic trainers and football staff to check the helmets weekly?

If the school district does changes their helmet-checking requirements and schedules, this would be an evidence based practice.

Learn more about formulating a research question with PICO in our tutorial video (and the guides linked below it!).

Asking Your Question (PICO) - Oregon Health & Science University This guide provides a definition of PICO, examples, and other potential formats of a research question.
Embase PICO Tutorial Video This video demos how to use the Embase PICO tool, an intuitive way to create effective search strategies.
How to Clarify a Clinical Question - BMJ This guide outlines not only individual pieces of the PICO format, but emphasizes the importance of the clinical question.
PICO - Duke University Duke offers this page on PICO, types of research questions, and tips on narrowing the research question. Part of their EBP guide.