Knowing what kind of question you're trying to answer will save you a lot of time! One way to categorize clinical questions is to ask whether it is a background or a patient-specific (or foreground) question.
Background questions ask for general knowledge (who, what, how, why, when) about a health condition, syndrome, issue or disease.
Example: Does/how does exercise strengthen the heart?
Example: When do complications of whooping cough usually occur and in what age groups?
Example: How well do creatine or iron supplements work as a substitute for food sources of these nutrients?
Patient-specific or foreground questions ask for knowledge in relation to individual patients or clinical cases/scenarios. They tend to be more complex than background questions,and require higher level search skills.
(See Patient-Specific Questions tab.)
Example: What are the cardiovascular concerns for a 55-year old female with familial history of heart attack beginning a new regimen of exercise?
Example: A 48 y.o. man with a history of high blood pressure wants to know if biofeedback would work better than the medication he's currently taking.
Example: Would the use of probiotics during antibiotic therapy reduce the likelihood of a pre-school child contracting antibiotic-associated diarrhea?
In reality, what begins as a background question may spill over into a foreground question and vice versa.
PICO is a short cut that helps you formulate a clinically-answerable question; the clearer you are about what you're searching for, the easier it will be to find it.
1st: Frame your patient issue in the form of a statement or question.
Example: I'm wondering if there's any research looking at regular exercise for mild to moderate depression that would benefit my patient, a 15 y.o. girl.
2nd: Identify your PICOs; be as specific as possible:
PICO
Patient Population or Problem: For which patient, group or health condition do you need information?
Teenage females experiencing mild to moderate depression.
Intervention (or Exposure): Which medical event or therapy do you need to study the effect of?
Regular exercise.
Comparison (if known): With what will you compare the intervention's results?
No regular exercise.
Outcomes: What are the relevant effects (outcomes) you'll be monitoring?
Lower levels of depression tracked by a validated qualitative perception scale
Clinical Question: Does regular exercise reduce depression in teenage females?
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