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Research questions fall into different categories. For example, when establishing what could be wrong with a patient, you will ask diagnosis questions. Once you know what is wrong, you may need to ask questions about prognosis or treatments.
|
Type of question |
Patient, population, or problem |
Intervention or exposure |
Comparison or control |
Outcome |
Foreground question prompt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Aetiology, risk factors, or harm
|
Patient or population risk factors, current health status (may include setting or age) |
Intervention or exposure of interest. May include:
|
May not be stated/applicable |
Harmful outcomes could include:
|
Why/how did this happen to the patient? |
|
Diagnosis |
Specific health condition or disease |
Diagnostic test or procedure |
Often compared with the current "gold standard" test or may not be stated/applicable |
Measures of test utility could include:
|
How should I investigate if the patient has a particular condition? |
|
Prevention |
Patient risk factors and current health status |
Preventive measure(s) (e.g. lifestyle change, drug therapy) |
May not be stated/applicable |
Could include:
|
How can I prevent a specific outcome/impact for the patient? |
|
Prognosis |
Main prognostic factor or clinical problem |
Often includes time, but this may not be applicable for identifying search terms |
May not be stated/applicable |
Measurable outcomes could include:
|
What could be the potential outcome for the patient? |
|
Treatment (therapy) |
Patient disease, condition, or presentation |
Therapeutic measures such as:
|
Could include:
|
Could include:
|
What should I do to best help/treat the patient? |
Click on the tabs below to view examples of the different types of clinical questions in the PICO framework.
Scenario:
You are working in a community clinic for people living with diabetes. You are interested in understanding whether high consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in adults.
PICO:
P: adults
I: high consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks
C: no or low consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks
O: development of type 2 diabetes
Clinical question:
In adults (P), does the high consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks (I) increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (O) when compared with no or low consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks (C)?
Scenario:
You are on placement in the ED, and a patient has presented with pain and tightness in their calf. They have recently been on a long-haul flight, and the clinical team is concerned they could have a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) but want to know which test would be more accurate - a d-dimer assay or a duplex ultrasound of the calf.
PICO:
P: adults
I: D-dimer assay
C: ultrasound
O: accurate diagnosis of DVT
Clinical question:
In adults (P), is a d-dimer assay (I) more accurate at ruling out a DVT (O) when compared to ultrasound (C)?
Scenario:
You are studying health promotion campaigns and their potential impacts of targeted population groups. You are interested to know whether school-based nutrition education programmes improve healthy eating habits in children when compared to no formal nutrition education.
PICO:
P: school-aged children
I: school-based nutrition education
C: no formal nutrition education
I: improved healthy eating habits
Clinical question:
In school-age children (P), do school-based nutrition education programmes (I) compared to no formal nutrition education (C) improve healthy eating habits (O)?
Scenario:
You are working on a multidisciplinary rehabilitation unit caring for a person who recently had a stroke. You have been asked to compare the long-term functional outcomes of constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) to mirror therapy as an alternative treatment for adults recovering from a stroke.
PICO:
P: adults recovering from a stroke
I: constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT)
C: mirror therapy
O: long-term improvement in upper limb function
Clinical question:
In adults recovering from a stroke (P), how does constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) (I) compare to mirror therapy (C) affect long-term improvement in upper limb function (O)?
Scenario:
You are interested in whether parents using reading interventions improves language development in preschool children with speech delays.
PICO:
P: preschool children with speech delays
I: parental reading interventions
C: no reading intervention/usual care
O: improved language development
Clinical question:
In preschool children with speech delays (P), how effective are parental reading interventions (I) compared to no intervention (C) in improving language development (O)?