PICO process

The PICO process (or framework) is a <a href="/facts/Mnemonic/6HfDn0ks">mnemonic</a> used in <a href="/facts/Evidence-based_practice/sU7RdtkN">evidence-based practice</a> (and specifically <a href="/facts/Evidence-based_medicine/InK1lB9l">evidence-based medicine</a>) to frame and answer a clinical or health care related question, though it is also argued that PICO "can be used universally for every scientific endeavour in any discipline with all study designs". The PICO framework is also used to develop literature search strategies, for instance in <a href="/facts/Systematic_review/dGvq3BGx">systematic reviews</a>.
The PICO acronym has come to stand for:

<ul><li>P – Patient, problem, or population</li>
<li>I – Intervention</li>
<li>C – Comparison, control, or comparator</li>
<li>O – Outcome(s) (e.g. pain, fatigue, nausea, infections, death)</li></ul>
An application that covers clinical questions about interventions, as well as exposures, risk/ prognostic factors, and test accuracy, is:

<ul><li>P – Patient, problem, or population</li>
<li>I – Investigated condition (e.g. intervention, exposure, risk/ prognostic factor, or test result)</li>
<li>C – Comparison condition (e.g. intervention, exposure, risk/ prognostic factor, or test result respectively)</li>
<li>O – Outcome(s) (e.g. symptom, syndrome, or disease of interest)</li></ul>
Alternatives such as SPICE and PECO (among many others) can also be used. Some authors suggest adding T and S, as follows:

<ul><li>T - Timing (e.g. duration of intervention, or date of publication)</li>
<li>S - Study type (e.g. <a href="/facts/Randomized_controlled_trial/LG9lkyVx">randomized controlled trial</a>, <a href="/facts/Cohort_study/Ba0HaJef">cohort study</a>, etc.)</li></ul>

PICO process open-in-new

PICO process