PICOT Searching
"The PICOT format is a helpful approach for summarizing research questions that explore the effect of therapy:5
-
(P) – Population refers to the sample of subjects you wish to recruit for your study. There may be a fine balance between defining a sample that is most likely to respond to your intervention (e.g. no co-morbidity) and one that can be generalized to patients that are likely to be seen in actual practice.
-
(I) – Intervention refers to the treatment that will be provided to subjects enrolled in your study.
-
(C) – Comparison identifies what you plan on using as a reference group to compare with your treatment intervention. Many study designs refer to this as the control group. If an existing treatment is considered the ‘gold standard’, then this should be the comparison group.
-
(O) – Outcome represents what result you plan on measuring to examine the effectiveness of your intervention. Familiar and validated outcome measurement tools relevant to common chiropractic patient populations may include the Neck Disability Index6 or Roland-Morris Questionnaire.7 There are, typically, a multitude of outcome tools available for different clinical populations, each having strengths and weaknesses.
-
(T) – Time describes the duration for your data collection."
Guyatt G, Drummond R, Meade M, Cook D. The Evidence Based-Medicine Working Group Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature. 2nd edition. McGraw Hill; Chicago: 2008
Riva, J. J., Malik, K. M., Burnie, S. J., Endicott, A. R., & Busse, J. W. (2012). What is your research question? An introduction to the PICOT format for clinicians. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 56(3), 167–171.
Access PICOT in CINAHL
- Access the CINAHL Database
- Click on the PICOT acronym located in the top right corner of the search box ( as seen below).
- This will bring up the PICOT search box, where you can enter your search parameters.
- CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
CINAHL is a comprehensive source of full-text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 1,300 journals indexed in CINAHL. This authoritative database contains full text for many of the most used journals in the CINAHL index.
Research Supporting PICOT
- Association between framing of the research question using the PICOT format and reporting quality of randomized controlled trialsBetter framing of the research question using the PICOT format is independently associated with better overall reporting quality - although the effect is small - and better reporting of key methodologies.
- Posing the research question: not so simpleThe PICOT approach may be helpful in defining and clearly stating the research question. It remains to be determined whether or not compliance with the PICOT style, or any other format for framing research questions, is associated with a higher quality of research reporting.
- What is your research question? An introduction to the PICOT format for cliniciansClinicians often witness impressive treatment results in practice and may wish to pursue research to formally explore their anecdotal experiences. The potential to further new knowledge both within the profession and to the greater healthcare system is compelling. An obvious next step for a practitioner considering research is to connect with experienced researchers to convey their idea for a study, who may in turn ask, “What is your research question?” With limited understanding of how to respond, this interaction may result in the first and last experience these clinicians will have with the research community.
- Evolving the PICOT Method for the Digital Age: The PICOT-DThis article demonstrates the need for the evolution of the PICOT format to the PICOT-D format.