Western Alliance Seminar Series … · ©2015"The"LeeJenn"Group"|""|"[email protected]...

© 2015 The LeeJenn Group |www.leejenn.com.au | [email protected] | 1300 988 184

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Western Alliance Seminar Series Seminar 2 – Searching for evidence?

Why use PICO?1

If you do a search on a topic and find that you have lots of non-‐relevant results, you can

either visually scan them all OR find a way to develop a more targeted research question.

One way to do this is to use the ‘PICO’ method.

What is PICO?

PICO stands for Patient/Intervention/Comparison/Outcomes. The PICO method helps you to

develop an answerable question. PICO defines the clinical question in terms of the specific

patient problem, which aids the researcher in finding clinically relevant evidence in the

literature.

P Patient/population/problem Describe the population or target group

I Intervention What is the main intervention or program

C Comparison What is the alternative or comparison intervention

O Outcome What is the effect or what do you want to achieve

Example of PICO It can be easier to think about PICO with some real examples. Let’s use the research question

from our first seminar and see how it would look in a PICO format.

Original question -‐ Why are parents reluctant to bring their children for MMR

vaccination when advised by their GP that it’s for the best?

1 Screen shots sourced & adapted from Bowers, D., House, A., & Owens, D. (2011). Getting Started in Health Research. UK: John

Wiley & Sons, pp. 14–15.


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Population: Parents of children without MMR vaccination.

Intervention: MMR vaccination education.

Comparison: Parents with no MMR vaccination education.

Outcome: MMR vaccination uptake. Change in attitude and beliefs.

Figure 1. Example of PICO with our research question

Now we can rewrite our research question using PICO:

Do parents who receive MMR vaccination education change their attitude and beliefs and/or level of MMR vaccination uptake with GPs, as compared to parents who do not receive the education intervention?

Figure 2. Revised question with PICO

Now, if you use PICO to develop your questions and terms the search will be more complex

than those we have done already, so the next step would be to write a literature review

protocol and decide which terms and which databases you might want to use e.g. PubMed,

PsycINFO.

See below for an example of possible terms you might use for your database searches.

MMR or vaccination AND attitude or beliefs

Parents OR mother OR carer OR patient

Figure 3. Example of search terms


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Another example of PICO2

Here is another example of a question that is reframed using PICO from Fink (2008), pp.48-‐

49.

Basic

question

How can we improve care for diabetic patients?

More

specific

question

How well does interactive computer technology compare to educational

material in improving quality of life when used as part of a comprehensive

treatment plan for primary care patients with Type 2 diabetes?

The more specific question details the population (patients with Type 2 diabetes), type of

program being sought (interactive computer technology), a comparison program (written

education materials), and the desired outcome (improved quality of life).

How would this look in PICO?

P Patient/population/problem Primary care patient with Type 2 diabetes

I Intervention Interactive computer technology

C Comparison Written education materials

O Outcome Improved quality of life

2 Sourced from Fink, A. (2008). Practicing research: Discovering evidence that matters. California: Sage Publications, pp. 48-‐49.

Western Alliance Seminar Series … · ©2015"The"LeeJenn"Group"|""|"[email protected]...

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