Using PICO to Search PubMed

The acronym may change depending on your research question or case study. You can make your own variation on the acronym if needed. Below are a few commonly used variations that similarly focus on clinical questions related to specific therapies and interventions.

• PICOT = Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Type of Study

• PPICO = If your population is more complex, it may need two descriptors for its population

• PI_O = Your question many not need a comparison

• PEO = Population, Exposure, Outcome

These two models can be particularly useful researching topics that are likely to have qualitative data, such as descriptions of attitudes and experiences.

PICo = Population, Phenomenon of Interest, Context 

SPIDER = Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research Type