PICO(T), POPULATION, INTERVENTION, COMPARISON, OUTCOME, TIMEFRAME

Understanding PICO(T)-formatted clinical questions are important in nursing research. PICO(T) is a mnemonic used to describe the four or five elements of a good clinical question: POPULATION, INTERVENTION, COMPARISON, OUTCOME and TIMEFRAME (P,I,C,O,T). These components of a clinical question also represent different types of variables. The PICOT approach will help, clinicians and researchers, identify and answer relevant clinical study questions (Riva, J., Malik, K., Burnie, S., Endicott, A., and Busse, J. (2012).