Research Guides: Dental Hygiene: PICO

What is PICO?

An essential part of evidence-based decision making involves asking a good question. A clinical or research question can generally be broken down into four components. 'PICO' is the acronym that identifies the four components of a good research question:

Population

Intervention

Comparison

Outcome(s)

The PICO table on this page provides further explanation and examples for each of the four components.

The following links provide additional information and resources on PICO:

Introduction to PICO - UT Health, San Antonia

Forming Focused Questions with PICO - UNC Health Sciences Library

EBM Pico Tutorial: Forming a Clinical Question

PICO Explained

Population	Who or What? Participants or prinicipal person or thing Problem or predicament Population with a health/medical condition *Example Population: School age children*
Intervention	How? Intervention Treatment Therapy Tests *Example Intervention: Education (hygienist led presentation on proper oral care)*
Comparison	What is the main alternative to the intervention? Another intervention Standard of care or operation *Example Comparison (alternative intervention): No education*
Outcome(s)	What are you trying to accomplish, measure or improve? Measurement of comparisons Relevant outcomes *Example Outcome: Fewer cavities*

PICO search query

Search Tips:

Don't enter a question or sentence into the search box.
Search by keywords or phrases
Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to help narrow or expand your search.
Use Boolean operators to connect your PICO terms

Here are some examples:

AND - use to connect two separate concepts to narrow the search (AND finds articles that contain BOTH terms)

periodontal disease AND pregnancy

OR - use to search for similar terms to expand the search (OR finds articles that contain EITHER term)

wisdom teeth OR third molars

NOT - use to exclude terms to narrow the search (NOT find articles that contain one term but NOT the other)

heart NOT lung