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What is a PICO(T) Question?
PICO(T) is a process used for framing a research question that allows for more effective location, assessment, and evaluation of sources. It is a popular model used within evidence-based practice research. The PICO(T) question is composed of different segments: Population/Patient, Intervention, Comparison/Control, Outcome, and Time. In order to have a fully developed PICO(T) question, it must contain each of these segments.
| P |
Population/Patient |
Who are the relevant patients? Be sure to consider factors such as age, sex, geographic location, or those with a particular condition that are relevant to your question. |
|---|---|---|
| I |
Intervention |
What is the medication, management strategy, diagnostic test, or exposure that you would like to focus on? |
| C | Comparison/Control | Other than your intervention, is there an alternative management strategy, diagnostic test, or exposure that you would like to use as a comparison? |
| O | Outcome | What are the relevant patient-relevant results of the intervention? |
| T | Time | What is the time frame? This element is not always included. |
PICO(T) Segment Examples
Below are examples of the different segments of a PICO(T) question. Note that, when combined, a PICO(T) question becomes quite specific. Keep in mind that this chart constructs a PICO(T) question with the elements in the same order every time. This does not always need to be the case. Depending on how you structure the sentence, the intervention can come before the population, or the outcome can be placed at the beginning.
| Population/Patient | Intervention | Comparison/Control | Outcome | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example #1 | In patients with arthritis | does physical therapy | none | reduce joint inflammation | within a year |
| Example #2 | In elderly patients with throat cancer | what are the current treatments | in the management of fever and infection | none | none |
| Example #3 | In high school children | what is the effect of a nurse-led presentation on bullying | compared to no intervention | decreased reporting in bullying | within a 6-month time frame |
| Example #4 | In adults over age 50 | is a yearly mammogram | compared to a mammogram every 3 years | more effective in detecting breast cancer | none |
Asking Different Types of PICO(T) Questions
It's also important to note that PICO(T) questions can be created to ask different types of questions. Below is a table of the different types of PICO(T) questions that you might create, with examples of what each segment of a PICO(T) question would be for each question type.
| Population/Patient | Intervention | Comparison/Control | Outcome | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treatment (Therapy) | Patient disease or condition | Medication, surgical intervention, or lifestyle change | Standard of care, another therapy, placebo | Mortality rate, pain level, days lost from work |
| Prevention | Patient risk factors or general health condition | A preventive measure such as a medication or lifestyle change | May not be applicable | Disease incidence, mortality rate, days lost from work |
| Diagnosis | Target disease or condition | Diagnostic test or procedure | The standard of practice or another intervention | Measures of the test utility such as accuracy, specificity, or sensitivity |
| Etiology (Causation) | Patient risk factors, health disorder, or general health condition | A specific strength and duration of exposure to a risk factor | May not be applicable in this case | Disease incidence, rate of disease progression, mortality rates |
Further Reading & Online Resources
- Evidence-Based Practice: PICO from the Duke University Medical Center LibraryThis is a great guide to not only PICO but conducting Evidence-Based Practice research
- Searching for proof: Creating and using an actionable PICO questionAn article written by Clare Hastings and Cheryl Fisher that describes the process of creating an effective PICO question and using it to search within health science databases.
