LibGuides: Research: PICO to Search Strategy

Focus the Question

Use PICOT to formulate a clinical question and identify keywords for your search.

For example:

Your patient is a thirty year old woman, 14 weeks pregnant with her first child. On an initial antenatal visit she is found to have a BMI of 32, putting her in the obese range. You are concerned about the risk of adverse outcomes for the woman and her baby, especially if she gains a lot of weight during her pregnancy. You wonder whether dietary or lifestyle interventions could help your patient limit her weight gain during the remainder of her pregnancy.

P = Patient or Population or Problem

"thirty year old woman, 14 weeks pregnant with her first child.....BMI of 32"

Keywords: pregnant, pregnancy, prenatal, antenatal, obese, overweight, pregnant, pregnancy, prenatal, antenatal

I = Intervention

"dietary or lifestyle interventions"

Keywords: lifestyle, diet, exercise

C = Comparison

usual care

O = Outcome

"limit her weight gain during pregnancy"

Keywords: weight gain, excessive weight

T = Type of study

Question = therapy; study type = RCT or systematic review

Further help

Tutorials on formulating a clinical question

Formulating Answerable Questions CEBM University of Toronto

Asking a clinical question (CIAP) EBP Learning Module

How to write a research question: Full explainer with clear examples (VIDEO)

The well-built clinical question: a key to evidence-based decisions. Richardson, WS. et al. ACP Journal Club, v123:A12, Nov-Dec, 1995.

Search Strategy

Use keywords identified in the PICOT to form a search strategy:

obese OR overweight

AND

pregnant OR pregnancy OR antenatal OR prenatal

AND

lifestyle OR diet OR exercise

AND

weight gain OR excessive weight

Use the type of study to consider applying limits:

limit to Systematic Reviews or RCTs

The table below explains how Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) work