Formulate your research question and determine what kind of study you would like to do.
A well-formulated and focused question is essential to the conduct of the review. The research question binds the scope of the project and informs the sources to search, the search syntax, the eligibility criteria.
Here is a list of commonly used frameworks to help you articulate a clearly defined research question:
| Category of Question | Question Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Effectiveness |
Patient/Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome (PICO) |
What is the most effective blood sugar range to guide treatment for women who develop gestational diabetes mellitus in their pregnancy? |
| Etiology/Risk Factors |
Population, Exposure, Outcome (PEO)
|
Among newborns, what is the effect of the highest dB exposure compared to the lowest dB exposure (e.g. identified tertiles, quartiles, or quintiles) during pregnancy on postnatal hearing impairment? |
| Diagnostic Test Accuracy |
Population, Index Test, Reference Test, Diagnosis of Interest (PIRD) |
What is the diagnostic accuracy of duplex ultrasound compared to the reference standard for detecting symptomatic carotid stenosis? |
| Phenomena |
Setting, Perspective, Intervention/exposure/interest, Comparison, and Evaluation (SPICE) |
In assisted living facilities, do therapy dog visits as opposed to no therapy dog visits, reduce feelings of loneliness in older residents? |
| Experiential |
Population, Phenomena of Interest, Context (PIC) Population, Exposure, Outcome or Themes (PEO/T) |
What factors influence whether healthcare workers follow infection prevention and control guidelines for respiratory infectious diseases? |
| Scoping |
Population, Concept, Context (PCC) |
What types of neurological reactions to the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination have been reported in people who have received the HPV vaccine? |
A clinical question needs to be directly relevant to the patient or problem at hand and phrased in such a way as to facilitate the search for an answer. PICO makes this process easier. It is a mnemonic for the important parts of a well-built clinical question. It also helps formulate the search strategy by identifying the key concepts that need to be in the article that can answer the question.
Source: JAMA Evidence
